
Class. 
Book. 



I 



A Layman's Religion 



A Layman's Religion 



by 
ROGER SHERMAN GALER, A. M. 

President Universalist General Convention 



UNIVERSALIST PUBLISHING HOUSE 

BOSTON, MASS. 

192 1 






In xBxchange 
Duke Univoroiti ' 
MAY 7 - 1934 



INDEX 

Page 

Introduction 7 

Religion as a Theory 9 

Religion as an Experience 29 

Religion as a Guide to Conduct 37 

The Layman and the Church 43 

The Social Message of Jesus 47 

The Church and Social Questions 53 

Religion and Business 67 

What Is Success? - 71 

Religion and Evolution 77 

Present Day Problems 83 

Is Christianity Practicable? 93 

Death 105 



INTRODUCTION 

Laymen in these modern days are manifesting an ever in- 
creasing interest in religion, and are taking a larger part in the 
affairs of the Church. The demands of the age for religious in- 
strumentalities are far more numerous than ev^er before. In its 
efforts to keep pace with the spiritual needs of a complex civiliza- 
tion the Church is forced to multiply its activities and widen its 
interests. In every direction it sees new fields of profitable en- 
terprise. Religion touches life at nearly every angle. On the 
other hand, nearly every phase of life affects men's reactions to 
religion, so that, to paraphrase the dictum of the old Roman 
poet, ''Nothing human is foreign to the Chuich." 

We have ceased to regard religion as a thing to be observed 
on Sundays and laid aside for the remainder of the week. To 
become effective as a social agent it must have trained spiritual 
specialists, and these must have intelligent, courageous soldiers 
to execute their commands. When religion was regarded as 
purely a creature of the emotions, a sort of religious frenzy to be 
worked up in evangelistic revival or prayer meeting, laymen 
might give it nominal adherence, but many of them shrank from 
its public avowal and exhibition. 

The different definition which we are giving to religion to-day 
has set free a vast reservoir of power among the laymen of the 
Church, power which, if rightly guided, will go far toward mak- 
ing the Church what it ought to be, a dynamic force in social as 
well as individual life. 

Laymen and preachers look at the religious problem from 
different angles. Each is to a certain extent conscious of class 
impulses and motives. The layman may be able better to sense 



8 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

the religious currents mo\dng in his own group and to give them 
articulate voice. He may supplement the spiritual dynamic of 
the preacher most effectively with his practical training and 
business experience. 

Too often the layman leaves all of the spiritual activities 
of the Church to the preacher. Is it not time to go back to first 
principles and to recognize the layman as a spiritual unit for 
whose express benefit the Church is organized? For the layinan 
too is an individual and sustains an independent relation to the 
universe. He is a part of the great scheme of God; he looks out 
with infinite interest at the life he is living; he yearns for the 
spiritual consolations, if there be any, which religion has to offer. 
The layman, if he be intelligent, must have a philosophy of life, 
and if he be serious, a religion in which he anchors his faith. 

These chapters are not intended as complete discussions of 
the various topics, but as cross-sections of the reactions of a 
layman to religious problems. 

The widening interest of our thoughtful and sincere lay- 
men in religious activities should be heartily welcomed by all who 
desire to see the Church grow in scope and influence. To assist 
in interpreting this modern lay movement in our churches, and 
to encourage it so far as possible, is the purpose of this book. 

Mt, Pleasant, Iowa, June, 1921. 



\ 



A LAYMAN^S RELIGION 



RELIGION AS A THEORY 

MAN finds himself in a world of wonder and 
mystery. In whatever direction he turns, the 
wonder grows and the mystery deepens. If he 
analyzes matter by microscope and crucible to its 
ultimate atom, a still farther search reveals the atom 
as a world in itself, as complicated in its mechanism 
as a solar system. If he multiplies the power of the 
telescope until the seven Pleiades become a hundred 
and the Milky Way a blazing path of star-sown space, 
he perceives there are infinite depths beyond the 
reach of his most powerful instrument. He can not 
measure the infinitely great or the infinitely little. 
Neither can he, by the subtlest processes of chemistry, 
determine the ultimate essence of what we call matter. 
In the spiritual realm man feels himself conscious 
of personality. He is the cosmos in miniature. He 
feels, thinks, wills. He is actuated consciously, some- 
times unconsciously, by motives that appear to origi- 
nate within himself, as well as by stimuli of the out- 
side world. He perceives a relationship between the 
external world of matter and the internal world of 
sense. How this relationship originated or how it 



10 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

operates, he has been unable to explain by the most 
profound researches in psychology, physiology and 
physics. The Me and the Not-Me somehow interact 
to produce the amazing thing called Personality. 
Man is a puzzle to himself. His physical life he can 
partly understand, but how food is transmuted into 
thought or emotion or altruism still transcends the 
utmost bounds of knowledge. 

Man is not only an individual, he is a social being. 
He finds himself surrounded by other such individual 
units as himself. He is enmeshed in society where 
his conditions of life are largely determined by others, 
and where his every act has social consequences. 
For good or evil his life is bound up with the lives of 
those around him. In some manner these human 
units must live together in the same world, country, 
community. Out of social relationships arise moral 
and ethical considerations he can not ignore. But 
just as he sees on every side the relentless warring 
of the physical forces of nature, he perceives in society 
the forces of good and evil struggling for the mastery. 
The greed, selfishness, hate and ambition of a sinful 
world are only too apparent. Contradicting his 
inmost moral instincts, he sees badness often triumph- 
ant and goodness often defeated. He is forced to 
echo the complaint of Job — that the good are some- 
times unjustly punished, while the evil prosper in their 
ways. In the complicated maze of social forces it is 
sometimes difficult to see the operation of a moral 
law. He is even tempted to believe that the universe 



I 



RELIGION AS A THEORY 11 



is distinctly unmoral, that it does not care whether 
good or evil prevails. Ultimately, he is forced back 
upon the fundamental problem — the existence of evil. 
With curious subtlety and undying optimism he tries 
to explain the puzzling enigma that thus far has 
proved insoluble to all generations of men. 

Every thinking mind, lay as well as clerical, has 
pondered long and deeply on these fundamental 
problems of philosophy and life. To explain the 
nature of man's spiritual existence, and his relation- 
ship to God and to his fellow men, is the peculiar 
province of religion. 

Science deals with the whole vast physical and 
psychical universe, so far as its properties and laws 
are susceptible of examination and analysis. Philos- 
ophy attempts to explain and arrange into a system 
the laws underlying the worlds of matter and of 
thought, the nature of substance and attribute, the 
existence of a first cause, the relations of cause and 
effect, mind and matter, good and evil. Religion 
confines itself to man alone. To religion, the universe 
is a moral one. If there were no such thing as right 
and wrong, religion as a practical thing would cease 
to exist. It would still be necessary for man to exist as 
a non-moral being. He would still try to govern his 
actions so as to live as comfortably as possible. But 
human actions would be divested of their moral 
qualities, and life would lack that sense of infinite 
up-reaching and aspiration which religion alone affords. 

As a theory, the religion of the layman does not 



12 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

come through systematic theology or a study of 
historic sources. These have their value chiefly to 
the theological student, and the layman is not suf- 
ficiently versed in them to act upon their conclusions. 
But he has, he can not help having, a theory of the 
universe. With all due respect to the clergy, he must 
in the end formulate for himself the general outlines 
of his religious faith. What is religion, and what are 
the sanctions it imposes? What kind of a universe is 
it in which we are living? Religion has so long been 
deemed the peculiar province of the preacher, or at 
most of a few emotional souls, that before the layman 
can orient himself he must study the whole religious 
field, and learn the direction and purpose of the great 
religious movement. 

Is religion an intellectual assent to certain dogmas, 
or an act of worship? Is *t creed or life, an inner 
experience or a purely social force? Is it a matter 
for the individual soul without the intervention of 
priest or Church, or must it come through authorized 
channels, long ago established by Divine Order? 
Are conscience and reason its guides, or must it follow 
the revelation of a book or the dictates of a Church? 
Upon the answer to these questions depends our 
whole attitude toward religion and the Church. 

The intelHgent layman has studied the philosophi- 
cal systems of the past, but only to a limited extent 
has he tried to interpret the underlying philosophy 
of the Christian religion. 

And yet, the world of science, the fields of phil- 



RELIGION AS A THEORY 13 

osophic thought, are studied and explored in every 
college, are a part of the daily life of every cultivated 
intellect. It is impossible to avoid them if we would. 
At every point they touch and affect human life. 
We see the eternal processes of nature in every spring- 
time and harvest, in the movements of the planets, 
the august succession of the seasons, the mysterious 
laws of life, growth and death. We are conscious of 
passion, feel the throb of emotion, thrill at the magic 
touch of art in the form of music, painting, poetry, 
and know there is some mysterious power that urges 
us toward righteousness and truth. Who has not 
wondered as to the origin of this vast physical universe 
of which our little world is only an insignificant atom? 
Or who has not speculated as to the origin of evil, the 
only moral riddle in the universe? What is the 
nature of man, and, if he possesses a soul, where did 
it come from and what is its ultimate destiny? Chris- 
tian or Pagan, Buddhist or Mohammedan, Jew or 
Gentile, these questions come to the inquiring soul 
with equal and awful force. Every age, every con- 
dition of man, has thought, prayed, agonized over the 
fundamental problems of philosophy and of life. 

When these profound questions touch the Chris- 
tian scheme of religion we are at once impressed by 
the new method of approach which Jesus used. 

Jesus did not argue, he proclaimed. He neither 
invented nor followed a system of logic. His words 
were dicta, not syllogisms. He did not aim to con- 
vince the intellect, but to arouse the emotions, to 



14 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

fire the heart. The philosophy of Socrates regarded 
man as a moral being, and was directed chiefly to 
his intellect. To the majority of men it was cold 
and unappealing. The intellect was convinced, but 
the soul was not touched. It was light without heat. 
The method of Jesus was the exact antithesis of this. 
He did not aim to prove man's divine sonship to God, 
or the awfulness of sin. He spoke of these things as 
if they proved themselves, as needing no proof save 
the consciousness in every breast that they were true. 

God is our Father, men are brothers, sin destroys, 
love heals, forgiveness is divine, life is a battle against 
evil, the soul may enjoy happiness forever. The 
moral phases of life are the only ones that are worth 
considering. Life is regarded as a practical rather 
than a philosophical entity. Men may reason and 
speculate on these fundamental and all-important 
questions, but the only thing that matters is — what 
kind of a life shall we live? 

Perhaps it was well that Jesus ignored the ques- 
tions of speculative philosophy. Any definitions he 
might have given or conclusions he might have stated, 
would have been subject to critical analysis, and so 
far in the history of thought no system or theory has 
been propounded that has not been open to the most 
serious objections. No philosophical explanation of 
the universe has yet obtained universal acceptance. 
By confining himself to the mission and province of 
love, Jesus avoided the disputatious criticisms of the 
schoolmen and the cold analysis of the philosopher. 



RELIGION AS A THEORY 15 

The layman may well begin with the "Con- 
fession" — to use the Augustinian term — that Chris- 
tianity is the highest and best form of religion known 
to man. He may go one step farther and assert that, 
whether all of its various phases are of equal authority, 
or possess an equal share of Divine truth, or not, yet 
it is of the utmost importance that in some form it be 
adopted as our religion and that we work faithfully 
for its general acceptance and practise. We are not 
going to make careful appraisements and comparisons 
with other religions. We accept Christianity as an 
ultimate fact. The religion of Christ is the religion 
of the most enlightened peoples. Its precepts cover 
every practical need of men. Its inspirations are 
suficient for every soul. Its ideals are lofty enough 
to serve as the goal of every human endeavor. Here 
we may rest with the assurance that if human society 
will only follow its dictates, not only will individual 
souls be solaced and satisfied, but social institutions 
will be touched with that charity and sympathy that 
may soon reconstruct them on broader and better 
foundations. 

Religion as a theory is the attitude of the soul 
toward God. However we may define the term God, 
whether we mean the vital Life Principle of the scien- 
tist, the First Great Cause of the philosopher, the 
Unknowable of Herbert Spencer, the "Power not 
ourselves that makes for righteousness'' of Matthew 
Arnold, the Elan Vital of Bergson, or the God of 
Christian theology, it is our relation to that mysterious 



16 A LAYMAN^S RELIGION 

but omnipresent power that constitutes our religion* 
That is its essence. All other articles of our belief 
are but incidents, corollaries, and by-products. They 
are important, of course, in defining our mental 
operations, our views of life, and ultimately in shaping 
our conduct. Men in all ages and in all stages of 
culture have recognized or believed in a supreme 
Intelligence or Power; that the universe is somehow 
under its control or responsive to its influence; that 
man is a weak and dependent being; that distinctions 
exist between right and wrong; and that man con- 
tinues to exist after death. These are tremendous 
factors in determining the kind of lives we are to lead. 

There are two theories of God in His relation to 
the world. One is that God is transcendent — that is 
Mohammedanism, St. Augustinism, Calvinism. The 
other theory is that God is immanent. This, under 
whatever name it may be found, is the doctrine of 
Plato, of Jesus, of Emerson, of the theistic evolutionist. 
From one viewpoint God rules the universe with a 
rod of iron. Man is the helpless creature of a Being 
who, though absolutely just, is without pity or 
sympathy. God is the creator and controller of a 
universe that sprang into being at His fiat and that 
exists only at His pleasure. Things which are are 
right because He wills them, not because of any in- 
herent moral rightness in themselves. His decrees 
are to be accepted implicitly, without question. 

In some inscrutable way, God has decreed things 
as they are, and His ways toward man would be 



F 



RELIGION AS A THEORY 17 



abundantly justified if we only understood His ul- 
timate purpose. 

If we are forced to choose between these opposing 
theories we should prefer the doctrine of immanence, 
which, in its ultimate analysis, is the doctrine of love. 
God is in His world, not above it. He lives and moves 
in the countless concentrations of star-dust into worlds 
fit for life, in the movements of gravitation, in all the 
forces of the natural world, in the beauty of the flower 
and the grandeur of the sea, and, above all, in the soul 
of man. He is the vital fact that gives the universe its 
color, its beauty, its life. He transfuses matter as 
the soul transfuses the body. The laws of matter are 
His modes of operation. The world is not a finished 
product. It is a system in process of becoming. 
Life is a stage in an infinite journey. Onward and 
upward has been the process of cosmic evolution. 
The fire-mist swings in space, the worlds round into 
shape, the seas lay down their strata, man appears, 
civilization begins, conscience is born, religion teaches 
unselfishness and love. This is the eternal process, a 
process that embraces Polaris and the Southern Cross, 
amoeba and man, the infant in its cradle and a Newton 
reaching out with Godlike intellect among the stars. 

It is much more consoling and satisfying to the 
average thinking mind to look upon human life as 
part of a great Becoming and capable of indefinite 
improvement, rather than as a final completed fact, 
for which there is no possibility of further progress. 
The Calvinistic theory that God elects certain men 



18 A LAYMAN^S RELIGION 

and saves them by the operation of His grace, and 
that for the great majority of mankind no efforts of 
their own can avail to change their destiny, is re- 
pugnant to the modem mind. 

We prefer to believe that God cares for His chil- 
dren, and helps them so far as they will permit Him 
to do so; that He wills the good of every soul and its 
final happiness; that all our efforts help ourselves and 
our fellows toward the highest good and happiness of 
all. 

There is no doubt an element of truth in both 
theories of God. He is no doubt transcendent in 
the sense that He is behind and above all phenomena, 
that He is the guiding power of the universe. But 
frail, finite man prefers to think of Him as a Being 
with whom he may have loving contact and with 
whom he can co-operate in all efforts for his personal 
salvation. We should avoid the pantheism which 
confuses God with the material substance of which 
the visible universe is composed. Let us cling to the 
belief, which has ample philosophic warrant, that God 
is a Person who lives in all things, and who in addition 
thinks and feels for the struggling souls of our com- 
mon humanity. 

If this be true man becomes a child of God, who 
is his loving Father, not a remorseless monarch, living 
above and outside of His creation. And if God is our 
Father, then all men must be brothers. This is the 
democracy of religion. There are no divine favorites, 
destined to be transferred upon death to the bosom of 



RELIGION AS A THEORY 19 

a God who sends most of His children to eternal tor- 
ment. Man is the object of God's tender thoughtful- 
ness and care. He is in a world of sin and wrong that 
he may develop God-like qualities. He is beset with 
passions and temptations that he may grow in grace 
and strength. Man is a part of the Divine, and is 
fighting, pushing, struggling, sorrowing, his way up 
into the sunlight where love and justice are to become 
universal. 

Man is not the creature of a day. His past 
reaches back into geologic ages, and he realizes that 
events far removed have contributed to his present 
status and surroundings. He knows that the flashes 
of Sirius affect our lives. That the fishes splashing in 
Devonian seas helped to prepare the earth as a home 
for imperial man. That Sumerian texts written in 
curious cuneiform characters five thousand years before 
the Christian era helped to lay the foundations of 
our religious beliefs. These things make him realize 
that the universe is one, that a mighty plan is being 
unfolded, through countless eons, and that he is a 
factor, though a small one, in this wonderful onward 
march, a co-worker with God. 

If God is still working in His universe and crea- 
tion is endless, is it not clear that man's growth and 
work will never be finished, that his upward climbing 
is an eternal process? This world is not a probation, 
it is a station in an endless journey. Man's life and 
energies are to be continuous throughout this and 
all future worlds. The soul of man can not die, for 



20 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

the great law of the conservation of energy applies to 
the spiritual as well as to the physical universe. Man 
is not to be condemned for his imperfections and sins, 
for too often he is unable to control events and con- 
ditions. Punished he will be, so far as retributive 
justice can heal and induce repentance and reform. 

Man has a free will, but that will works within 
the limitations in which it is placed. Two hundred 
generations often avail more than the passing hour. 
Heredity chains, environment compels, and these 
often leave but little to moral choice. It would be a 
moral crime to punish forever a soul under fetters 
not of its own creating, and which it is powerless to 
break. The old controversy between free-will and 
predestination loses much of its importance in the 
light of this theory of man and his mission — a creature 
in a boundless universe, traveling an endless journey, 
in loving fellowship with an Infinite Spirit who watches 
every step and predestines upward every stage of the 
onward march. 

Nearly two thousand years ago a new light ap- 
peared in the world. It came in an obscure corner of 
the mighty Roman Empire. The whole world was at 
peace, wrapped up in material problems, drunk with 
power. The torch bearer was a simple Nazarene, 
the son of a carpenter. To Grecian philosophy or 
Roman law, to the wise and powerful of earth, what 
could he offer of value or importance? 

Neither his coming nor his going created a ripple 
on the serene waters of the Roman ocean of his time. 



ii 



RELIGION AS A THEORY 21 

Augustus in his palace on the Palatine never heard 
nor heeded the golden tones of his persuasive voice. 
He wrote no creed and hence did not rank with 
the philosophers. He carried no sword to win the 
fame of a conqueror. He established no church to 
perpetuate his teaching. His program was so simple 
it seemed absurd. 

A few fishermen by the Sea of Galilee. 
A few immortal sentences on the Mount above. 
A few parables cast in vivid Eastern phrase. 
A few years of kindly ministrations. 
And then the voice ceased. The light for a time 
disappeared. The feet ran no more errands of mercy. 
The gentle commands healed no more the hideous 
sicknesses of that Eastern world. When the light 
went out neither Rome, nor Alexandria, nor Athens, 
had heard his name. His Kfe and death were but a 
feeble wave on the restless shore of an imperial world. 
And yet this simple prophet with his message 
of love on the Judean hills has wrought the mightiest 
changes of history; no king, no military conqueror, no 
inspired seer has ever exerted a tithe of the influence 
of the carpenter of Nazareth. And the mighty flood 
of that influence is still sweeping over the world, cleans- 
ing, renewing, inspiring with a new and divine power. 
When Jesus appeared, faith was dead. The old 
gods had lost their hold upon the respect and rever- 
ence of men. Zeus had disappeared from Olympus, 
Jupiter had deserted the Capitol, Neptune no longer 
ruled the waves of the sea. Greek philosophy had 



22 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

broken up into schools — its golden age departed. 
Even Jahveh had lost his power over all but a small 
fragment of the sacred nation, some of the Jews pre- 
ferring Roman authority and some Hellenistic culture. 
The religion which Jesus preached challenged both 
Jew and Greek. For the one it took away the su- 
premacy of the Mosaic law. For the other it added 
the strange doctrine of a God of love, a great sacrifice 
for sin, a paradise of happiness for the redeemed soul. 

Christianity as Christ preached it is an internal 
rehgion. It proceeds from within outwards. The 
Kingdom of God which he came to set up was not to 
be a worldly kingdom^. From the individual outward 
to society, from the heart of man upward to God. 
This is the Christian ideal. This is the divine method 
of reconstructing both man and social institutions. 

And what is the message that is to accomplish 
this regeneration? It is the gospel of Love. The 
whole glow of Jesus' personality shines forth in that 
one word — Love. His whole scheme is based on 
Love. If that fails Christianity is doomed to ulti- 
mate extinction. It has no other formula or basis. 
Its entire preaching is centered in this one word. 

Love is the universal solvent. It destroys self- 
ishness, dissolves envy, softens ambition. In its rays 
the clouds of sin disappear. If Christian love should 
become imiversal the land would never again resound 
with the tramp of armies, the shores of the oceans 
would never again see a hostile fleet. Unlawful gains 
in business, cruel oppression of the weak, unjust use of 



RELIGION AS A THEORY 23 

power, would be unknown. In short, the wrongs that 
afflict society and that spring out of our relationship 
to our fellows would disappear in just the proportion 
that men were permeated with love and were willing 
to practise its precepts. 

As to the social theories of Jesus we shall have 
something to say in a future chapter. As to his per- 
sonality we do not need to dogmatize. His influence 
in our hearts does not depend on any theory of his 
person. 

His message is true and it will ultimately win, 
for we believe that truth is mighty and will prevail. 
In his enthusiasm he said, "I and my Father are one.'' 
Not in the sense of identity, except as all souls are of 
the likeness of God, but in the sense of an essential 
spiritual affinity and kinship. We can not assent to 
the metaphysical absurdities of a trinitarian dogma, 
but this does not diminish our admiration and love. 

The Bible is the great document of our faith. 
The CathoKc reads it but only the Church may in- 
terpret it. Orthodox Protestantism holds the doctrine 
of its plenary and verbal inspiration. In recent years 
the Higher Criticism has shaken that doctrine in the 
minds of most thoughtful people. We have studied 
the origins of the Bible, its historic sources and materi- 
als, its authorship, and the dates of its composition. 
Most people now agree that, instead of being a single 
book, it is a collection of books, many of them of 
composite authorship, some anonymous, written in 
different ages and for many purposes. Some of the 



24 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

Bible is history, some prophecy, some moral instruction 
of the highest order. Its different parts vary greatly 
in value. It is a library collected through many ages 
and purposed for instruction, for reproof, for inspira- 
tion. 

But whatever may be its origins, whether in the 
highly sensitized Semitic genius, in Babylonian myths 
and traditions, or even those of Persia and far off 
India, whether found in Gilgamesh Epic, Tel-el- 
Amarna tablets or Oxyrhynchus papyrus, it narrates a 
marvelous history — the development of the spiritual 
sense from Animism to Jehovah, from Jehovah to the 
loving Father of Jesus. In the course of a thousand 
years of growth and accretion, it shows how, out of 
painful experience and prophetic guidance, moral 
and religious ideas arose. It marks the gamut from a 
superstitious appeal to the Witch of Endor to the 
Lord's Prayer, from the crude barbarism of the idea 
which paints the sun as standing still while Joshua 
slays his enemies, to the sublime utterance of Jesus, 
'^Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called 
the children of God." Whoever reads the Bible as a 
story of marvelous rehgious development forgets that 
its science is faulty and its morals often those of a 
barbarous age. Literally interpreted it is frequently 
open to criticism, especially if viewed as the product 
of verbal inspiration. 

But its virtues are transcendent and its content 
invaluable. Briefly stated, that content may be sum- 
marized as follows: In the Old Testament, it is the 



RELIGION AS A THEORY 25 

gradual development of the idea of only one God — 
''Hear Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is One." 
In the New Testament, the noble proclamation of the 
brotherhood of man and the infinite value of each 
human soul. 

For the orthodox the ultimate end of religion is 
personal ''salvation," and this comes through grace. 
For the liberal thinker it is not so much salvation as 
character, but salvation comes through character. 
Obviously the orthodox are right if this life is merely a 
probation which ends at death, and if our conduct in 
this life determines for all future time whether the 
soul shall be happy or miserable. But if, as we be- 
lieve, life is continuous in all worlds and death only 
an incident, the supreme purpose of life becomes 
growth, development. The more lessons we learn 
here, the more beautiful our characters become, so 
much the farther are we on the road toward per- 
fection and happiness. Life is a school. Salvation 
is overcoming the lower instincts and passions and 
enthroning in man's life the higher qualities of love 
and sacrifice. It comes by everything that hfts and 
educates and elevates the soul. The Church, the 
school, the home, all good influences, help to save. 
It is a slow, evolutionary process, not sudden or 
cataclysmic. But it is a certain process, otherwise 
God will be defeated and evil will be permanently 
triumphant. If a single human soul is lost forever, 
God is defeated in His plans, or else he is not All-God. 
We see no escape from the conclusion that there 



26 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

must be a state and a world where man comes into 
harmony with the divine plan and God's love and 
the universe are vindicated. 

This final harmony is a condition, not a point in 
time or space. Salvation is a natural, wholesome, 
certain process, and heaven is not on Arcturus or the 
Pleiades, but is ''within you.'' 

There is no realm where law does not operate and 
govern. This is as true In the spiritual as in the 
physical universe. We are not to be saved by divine 
favors, or operations which conflict with natural law. 
The individual soul learns by experience. It discovers 
that it pays to do what is right and that doing wrong 
brings a sure penalty. Gradually, it becomes obedient 
to the higher law, just as the worlds rounded into 
shape under the stern but loving compulsion of natural 
law. As the result of obedience there is harmony be- 
tween the soul and its Maker, and harmony brings 
the ''peace that passeth all understanding." Hell is 
the punishment that follows wrong doing, and will not 
last forever. Heaven is the condition of harmony 
existing between the soul and its environment, which 
includes not only this transient life, but God, the 
soul's Creator and final destiny. 

Viewed from the standpoint of the individual the 
world sometimes seems unjust, cruel, remorseless. 
But experience teaches us to view the world as a whole, 
its conflicting passions the instruments of progress, 
its seeming injustices but incidents in a cosmic plan 
which ultimately means the highest good of all. 



RELIGION AS A THEORY 27 

Sometimes we seem to see in glimpses into the 
Divine plan that what we call justice is not the only 
or even the most desirable object; that right is relative 
and often impossible to ascertain with our poor finite 
vision; and that righteousness is only a partial goal. 
There are other qualities that are of great, even tran- 
scendent, value in making up the sum-total of life — 
sacrifice, love, pain, defeat, struggle. These educate 
the soul and make it grow. Would it be a moral uni- 
verse in which there was no injustice and where no 
struggle was necessary to overcome temptation? 
The evolution of a nervous system made man sus- 
ceptible to countless exquisite pains unknown to the 
protozoon. Likewise, the evolution of a moral sense 
renders the soul capable of suffering torments that 
are absent from the animal that has no moral instincts. 
Would we, to avoid the penalties of a higher organiza- 
tion — physical and moral — go back to the formless, 
simple structure of the lower animals? It is the part 
of wisdom to recognize these evident truths. A 
highly organized being is imxpossible without attend- 
ant liability to suffering, and the pains and struggles 
that come as the result of living surrounded by wrong 
and imperfection, push the soul on in its upward 
evolution toward its ultimate goal — a likeness with 
God. 



RELIGION AS AN EXPERIENCE 

I HAVE been discussing religion as a theory. That 
is theology or the philosophy of religion. But 
religion is an inner life, an experience, rather 
than any speculative doctrine as to God, man and the 
universe. The different phases of religion as an 
experience may be summarized as follows : 

1. Man's proper relation to God, which is the 
basis of all religious experience. 

2. The manner in which right relations with 
God should be maintained — that is, modes of wor- 
ship. 

3. Man's inner religious life — the conscious 
reactions of the soul under the influence of religious 
impulses. 

So intimately are these three conceptions inter- 
woven, that it is difficult to separate them in any 
adequate discussion of the problems they suggest. 

1. It is not to be expected that all men will see 
God in the same attributes or modes of manifestation. 
God shows Himself in various ways to His children. 
Some possess the vision which ''sees God in clouds 
or hears Him in the wind.'' Some see Him in the 
reddening bars of a golden sunset or in the silver 
evening star — serene sentinel of a countless heavenly 
host. He may be read in geologic strata, mute relics 
of eons past, or in the delicate tissues of the human 



30 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

frame where adaptations of infinite complexity and 
beauty are manifest. 

And some find God in their own souls — an inner 
consciousness that tells them God has been there 
and left a trace of Himself in feeling and emotion 
and sacrifice and prayer. It is not essential what 
kind of glass there may be in the soul's cathedral 
windows. The vital thing is the altar where, in the 
"dim religious light/' the soul finds its ultimate kin- 
ship with the Divine. 

2. Nor is it necessary for all to worship in the 
same way. Souls are prisms through which the white 
light of truth is broken up into many different colors. 
Reverence and worship may be expressed in ecstatic 
frenzy, as with Southern negroes in the midst of a 
"protracted meeting;" or in the serene and stately 
formality of high church ritual, every phrase pre- 
cisely modulated, every gesture carefully toned down. 
Conventionality would crowd out religion from some 
and foster it in others. There is room for all in the 
great temple without crowding or jealous interference 
one with the other. 

Forms of religious worship, broadly speaking, 
adapt themselves to the needs of their adherents. 
We need not ridicule the savage who worships his 
idol, or believes in the mysterious efficacy of charms 
and amulets. He would be lost in the Sistine Chapel 
with its heavenly choir and priceless pictures. The 
Quaker worships in a plain chapel with wooden 
benches, the Italian in a marble temple adorned with 



RELIGION AS AN EXPERIENCE 31 

gems of art. Which is best? That which satisfies 
the soul. The Cromlechs of the Druids, the massive 
temples of the Egyptians, the winged lions of Assyria, 
the deathless Parthenon, the Gothic Cathedral. We 
may be saints in steam-heated houses as well as on 
St. Simeon's pillar. We may worship God in the 
soul's inner sanctuary as acceptably as in "long-drawn 
aisle and fretted vault," with the most gorgeous 
ceremonial that genius can devise. The law of filial 
obedience, of loving companionship, knows no sacred 
place, no magic formula, no mysterious rites. It 
demands only the sincere worship, the inner consecra- 
tion of a loyal soul. 

3. To enrich the soul with a wealth of religious 
experience is entirely possible. And yet it need not 
be, as many imagine, a purely emotional process. 
The layman at least wants intellectual conviction 
rather than soul ecstasy. Even prayer must be on a 
rational basis — a communion with its roots in reason 
rather than in mysticism. There are souls always 
living in a pentecostal baptism. There are more 
who can not reach the heights of feeling and who 
intensely dislike emotional display. That form of 
worship is best which arms the soul for its battles, as 
the steel is tempered by fire. Mrs. Humphry Ward 
says: "Learn to seek God, not in any event of past 
history, but in your own soul — in the constant veri- 
fications of experience, in the life of Christian love." 

4. There is a world of beauty outside of man — 
the natural world by which we are surrounded. The 



32 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

loveliness of the tree and flower and sunlit lake, the 
sublimity of the mountain, the grandeur of the sea, 
appeal powerfully to the dullest brain. But our 
noblest fellowship is with our human brothers, the 
fellow voyagers we meet along the ocean paths of life. 
They have insistent passions, or tender consciences, 
or quivering souls, as we have. They respond to the 
friendly touch of love, or flame with hate, or quicken 
with hope, as we wave to them our friendly greetings. 
Enter into their souls we can not, for the real soul of 
man lives in splendid isolation. But when hands are 
outstretched in friendly help and hearts beat in 
sympathy and love, their countenances glow and 
there is a redemptive grace and a transfiguration. 

Man's spiritual attitude toward his fellow men is 
an important element in his own religious experience. 
He who does not realize that he is living in a world of 
struggling, suffering fellow mortals is blind to the 
heavenly vision of self-sacrifice, the beauty of living 
for others. He does not realize his own fullest possi- 
bilities until he has made for some soul a vicarious 
atonement. This doctrine derives its virtue not from 
some debt paid or ransom discharged. It is by virtue 
of sacrifice and not under the law that it transfigures 
and saves. Like all sacrifice its benefits are more to 
the donor than to the beneficiary. Wonderful law 
of life — that he who gives, receives, and in greater 
measure and abundance as his gift is rich and rare. 

It is an obvious truth that the soul needs every 
possible spiritual help and consolation. We are in a 



RELIGION AS AN EXPERIENCE 33 

world of sin and suffering. Clouds surround us on 
every side. We are travelers in a narrow valley be- 
yond whose rugged mountain-sides our vision can 
not reach. We can see only a strip of blue sky above, 
with an occasional gleam of sunshine; sometimes 
mists and clouds obscure and storms beat themselves 
out above our hapless heads. Out of the prison of 
the present we can not escape. We were helpless to 
determine where our lot would be cast, what land or 
age or surroundings would be ours. We are alike 
powerless to stay our steps at the cold stream of 
death, but must plunge in and land upon its farther 
unseen shore. 

While we are in the flesh we are buffeted by mis- 
fortunes, beset by temptations, stormed by sorrows, 
which come not "singly but in battalions." Our 
friends forsake us. Riches take wings and fly away. 
Death invades our homes and takes the choicest 
flowers. Ambition lures us on only to deceive and 
leave us following an ever fading mirage. Pain, grim 
and pitiless, seizes upon our bodies. Racked with 
suffering we cry out in agony at the injustice that 
scourges us as if we were guilty of the blackest crimes. 
And all the while the laws that govern matter and 
spirit hold their serene and undisputed course, ap- 
parently caring not at all for the bruised flesh or 
wounded souls of men. 

Man's life on earth has been ignobly likened to a 
frightened bird which, during the storm of a winter 
night, dashes into a brilliant banquet room, with its 



34 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

flashing lights and summer warmth and color. Be- 
wildered by the unusual spectacle, it flies at random 
in various directions, meeting different obstacles, 
until, almost despairing and exhausted, it escapes by 
chance into the desolate blackness from which it 
came. The simile must not be admitted, for if I am 
a mere bird of passage, a snowflake that melts into 
the ocean's billows, identity forever lost, this life 
becomes an unbearable mockery. But if I am a 
child of destiny, capable of infinite growth, the 
source of limitless good to my fellows — life is merely 
a transient shadow in an eternal gleam of sunshine. 
Religion as an experience operates in an invisible 
world. Its outward results the world sees, and judges 
our religion from what it sees; but the fountains of 
religious experience lie within the depths of the soul. 
Is the invisible merely a fiction or is it real? Is it a 
figment of the imagination, conjured by hope or 
created by fear? All history, our own souls, loudly 
answer No! Across the bloody pages of the past rise 
the spectres of kingdoms vanished, of nations over- 
thrown by invisible forces. Proudly did they rear 
their thrones and establish their dominions upon 
the known laws of force, the wide foundations of 
selfishness and pride. But they toppled over before 
the love of a Nazarene, the ''still, small voice'' of a 
sage, the conscience of a saint. The cry of an innocent 
child is often mightier than the bugle of the warrior, 
for its human appeal arms heroic souls with the pan- 
oply of a mighty determination. The human soul is 






RELIGION AS AN EXPERIENCE 35 



a sea in which all tides are born and whose far-flung 
waters wash every shore of life. 

This is not the realm of mysticism, a garden of 
the soul's exotics, a twilight borderland where cer- 
tainty ends and speculation begins. It is the charted 
land of sure experiences, where the soul lives its true 
life, apart from the base materialism of the senses. 
If we were as sure of a fixed result in the spiritual as 
in the physical realm, our task would be simple, for 
we could multiply our knowledge by patient explora- 
tion with scientific accuracy. But the soul is a com- 
plex of forces and tendencies, the elements and proper- 
ties of which are not susceptible of exact chemical 
analysis. Its subtle shadings defy description. Its 
varied colors elude the artist's brush. Its subtle 
tones suggest the harmonies of all instruments, with a 
different music, depending on the quality of pipes 
and strings and overtones. Raphael's genius could 
make the soul shine through the face as in the Sistine 
Madonna, and Handel could evoke the noblest human 
emotions with his Messiah choruses, but neither could 
disentangle the silken threads of the soul's web and 
measure its feelings, its inwrought sensibilities, its 
inmost longings. Psychology is, therefore, more or 
less empirical, and religion addresses itself to this 
mystic synthesis — the loftiest but most elusive of all 
existences. 

I have already said that the religious experience 
of the layman is different from that of the preacher. 
It is likely to be less intense and more intellectual. 



36 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

In fact, the preacher often wonders why the layman 
places so little apparent stress on his religious life, 
forgetting that most of his energies are absorbed in 
daily tasks. On the other hand, it is a source of 
constant wonder to the layman that the preacher 
can talk so much of ecstasy and the inner life, can 
live so completely without the sphere of material 
things which daily occur. And yet, with this difference 
in emphasis and in the angle of vision, I think there 
is much common ground. For, while the layman 
can not talk so freely of his experiences, the hunger 
of the heart is there and must be constantly fed. He 
knows that religion is a necessity for the normal soul, 
that churches are ministries that are constantly need- 
ed. He knows that they are corrective to the moral 
strabismus too often acquired in business life. That 
they lift the soul into an atmosphere of peace and 
serenity which serves as a moral bath, refreshing 
and reinvigorating it for the stern duties that lie 
before it. Here is a fresh infusion of spiritual energy 
and of the loftiest ideals. For religion is the spiritual 
battery which recharges the soul. All through the 
week the soul gives off from its reservoir of moral 
energy, as the battery furnishes power to the motor. 
When the Sabbath dawns the light streams in from 
above, the great currents are reversed, the soul's 
depleted reservoirs are filled up with spiritual life 
and energy, and man goes forth a new creature, full 
of power and joy and hope, into his accustomed world. 



RELIGION AS A GUIDE TO CONDUCT 

IF I should take a text for this lay sermon it would 
be from James: ''Faith without works is dead/' 

The unknown author of this ''Epistle of Straw," 
as Luther called it, was chiefly concerned about con- 
duct, which Matthew Arnold declared to be "three- 
fourths of life/' "Ye see then how that by works a 
man is justified, and not by faith only. For as the 
body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works 
is dead also/' 

Man is not an isolated fact in this world. His 
domain is bounded on the north, the south, the east 
and the west by other lives. Instead of doing as he 
pleases he must relate his conduct to those whose 
lives touch his and whom every act of his vitally 
affects. Thus there springs into existence a realm 
of social obligation which rises into the sphere of re- 
ligious duty. Love to God is not enough. Love to 
our fellow man is the second great Commandment, 
and this introduces us into a complex problem of our 
duties and relations to our fellows. Is there a guide 
in this labyrinth that shall bring us safely out at last? 
Is there a sure-footed path for the soul amid the 
temptations and dangers that beset it in its earthly 
journey? 

There are two ways in which religion may serve 
as a guide to conduct. The first is by telling us what 



38 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

is right and what is wrong. The second is by furnish- 
ing sanctions for right doing and hving. Book and 
church and conscience and reason contribute to our 
moral standards, and through them we are fairly 
apprised as to what we may or may not do. 

The great roads of life are for the most part 
clearly marked with sign posts at the principal corners. 
For thousands of years men have been blazing trails 
in the wilderness of life. Religion is the compass 
which enables us to locate the pole-star and orient 
ourselves amid the moral perplexities of life. 

I see no reason why we should not make use of 
every religion, every book, every philosophy. We 
may learn from ancient Chinese moralists and from 
Hindu mystics. The prophets and psalmists of Israel 
uttered glorious notes of praise and wisdom. The 
philosophers of Greece came very close to the line of 
inspiration in their speculations on human life and 
duty. There is not a school of philosophic thought 
from the Eleatics to New England Transcendentalism 
which does not teach that there are certain moral 
standards of action and that wisdom consists in living 
up to those standards so far as possible. We may 
travel through this world with the confident convic- 
tion that all the wise and good souls of the past are 
with us as we struggle toward the light and the right. 

The chief function of religion is to serve as a 
guide to human conduct. Conduct is its acid test. 
Assent to a creed is a mockery unless it is followed by 
right action. Intellectual belief alone can not save 



RELIGION AS A GUIDE TO CONDUCT 39 

a soul or serve as a basis for social institutions. If 
we live right, if we "do justly, and love mercy," we 
are not far from the Kingdom. Jesus was forever 
proclaiming the necessity of good works. He was 
not content with forms or professions. ''Herein is 
my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.'' This 
is the foundation stone of his religion. It elevates to 
supreme importance the religion of the spirit and of 
good works. 

The universe is woven in one great piece. In His 
infinite loom God has set the fabrics which are matter, 
and established the movements of the shuttles, which 
are nature's laws, and the result is all of one texture 
following one supreme design. 

**Thus at the roaring loom of Time I ply, 
And weave the living garment of the Deity." 

Goethe could understand the magnificent sweep 
of this process and the marvelous unity of the result. 
Throw upon throw, thread after thread, the great 
loom speeds on its work and each of us adds his own 
individual contribution to the pattern. The blood- 
red of sacrifice, the lily-white of purity, the dashing 
colors of courage, or the modest gray of service, these 
are our lives woven into the many-colored fabric. 
Our part may unconsciously be played, but it is the 
mission of religion to make us conscious sharers in the 
process, joyfully entering into the great design with 
all our powers and faculties. 

Nearly all of civilization rests on self-sacrifice. 



40 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

In primitive ages man saves up a part of his store of 
fruits or meats for winter use. By a similar self- 
control in later stages of development he lays up part 
of what he has produced to serve his pleasure or in- 
crease production. Thus we have houses, cattle, 
enclosed lands — in short, Capital. Altruism is born 
and teaches him to continue his acts of sacrifice by 
sharing his products with others, and lo, a miracle is 
wrought. After giving largely he has more left than 
he had before. Aeschylus paints Prometheus chained 
to a rock, with the vultures preying upon his vitals. 
Each night there grew as much as the birds of prey 
devoured by day. When love prompts us to give our- 
selves in social service we do not lose but are better 
and finer than before. The soul with a wide horizon 
of sympathy is richer than the narrow one which 
counts its visible wealth by millions. 

Religion of the right kind will make us better 
neighbors, better citizens, better in all the affairs of 
life. We are learning that selfishness does not pay 
and that all are bound together in the bonds of a 
common fate. Tuberculosis in the next block means 
danger to our own loved ones. Dirty alleys and 
vicious moral conditions in our town prove that others' 
lives are vital to ours. The slums in the crowded East 
Side affect luxury on Fifth Avenue. An epidemic in 
Chinatown endangers Nob Hill. Science is thus a 
moral agent, teaching us by unanswerable argument 
our Christian duty. 

In theology also we are learning the solidarity of 



RELIGION AS A GUIDE TO CONDUCT 41 

society. This has been slow, for procrustean creeds 
have stood in the way. Social necessities are forcing 
their lessons on theology as well as on statesmanship. 
It is being borne in upon us from every direction that 
we are fellow travelers on the same great ship, across 
the same stormy ocean of life, and all destined to land 
in the same haven of happiness or suffer shipwreck 
together. To social truths religion comes and offers 
its sanctions. All men are brothers, children of the 
same loving Father. We must be satisfied with nothing 
less than the good of all men, of every race, every 
social and moral status. We see how all truth con- 
verges at this focus. In its ultimate lessons science is 
moral, teaching the danger of disease, the safety in 
obeying psychical laws. Art is moral, for art means 
beauty, and beauty means health, and health is found 
only in being in harmony with the laws of our being. 
Philosophy teaches these same lessons, but religion 
says that science and art and philosophy are moral 
because God so ordered the universe that every truth, 
of whatever color or significance or purpose, harmon- 
izes with all other truths. Moral wrong produces 
moral disease, and right living results in moral sound- 
ness and health. This is God's part in the great 
drama of the universe. 

In the famous Judgment scene in which Jesus 
prescribes the rules for entrance into eternal life it is 
significant that he says nothing about belief or ritual. 
He does not ask what you believe or whether you be- 
long to the established church. "I was hungry and 



42 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

ye gave me to eat; I was thirty and ye gave me ta 
drink; naked and ye clothed me; sick and ye visited 
me/' This is the gospel of good works. These are the 
tests that approve or condemn oiir lives. A man may 
say his prayers, or count his beads, or give intellectual 
assent to a creed a thousand times, but if he tells 
lies, cheats his neighbors, or wrongs the poor, his 
religion is worthless. In the last analysis the judg- 
ment of the world is not far wrong. And the world, 
impatient with theories or mere professions, looks at 
one's conduct as not only ''three-fourths of life,'' but 
as the only invariable test of one's reUgion. 



THE LAYMAN AND THE CHURCH 

WE think it one of the fortunate signs of the 
times that laymen are becoming interested 
and active church workers. Fortunate, to be 
sure, for the laymen themselves, doubly fortunate for 
the Church. Too often, laymen have been considered 
merely as raw material out of which to convert steady 
going, regular paying parishioners. I do not mean to 
suggest that they have been exploited by the ministry 
for that purpose. But it has been tacitly conceded 
that all the spiritual functions of the church should 
be performed by the minister, while laymen were 
interested but passive observers. The economic 
principle knows as the "division of labor" has set the 
preacher apart from his congregation, living on a 
pedestal of religious experience, and has made his 
hearers passive receivers of the inspiration which 
flows to them through his super-heated soul. 

To the average layman religion is more a matter 
of intellect and less a matter of emotion. The preach- 
er looks out upon life as it should be — the layman as it 
is. The preacher measures a theory by the yardstick 
of right — the layman asks ''Will it work?'' The former 
wants to know if an event can be justified by ethical 
standards, the latter analyzes events much as a sur- 
geon dissects his subject. The preacher is an idealist; 
the layman a pragmatist. Always there are these two 



44 A LAYMAN^S RELIGION 

phases of truth and two angles of vision. The preach- 
er calls his flock with a trumpet to ascend the mount 
and enjoy with him the beatific vision. The layman 
replies, ''I am too busy down here in the dust and toil 
of actual life.'' One tends toward an excessive other- 
worldliness, the other toward an undue materialism. 

These historic relationships are rapidly melting 
in the new days and conditions that are now upon us. 
Vv^e are nearing each other both in function and 
along the lines of social contact. The preacher lays 
aside his air of dignity with his clerical garb. He 
studies practical methods that he may administer 
the business affairs of his flock with keener insight 
and surer success. 

On the other hand we see the inspiring spectacle 
of laymen everywhere pressing forward in religious 
activities. They may be unwilling as ever to indulge 
in emotional exhibitions, but these are no longer re- 
garded as the only proof of religious feeling or convic- 
tion. Religion is largely a matter of conduct and the 
layman feels that he can engage in religious work not 
only with propriety but also from real liking. He 
becomes interested in the growing business concerns 
of the church and gradually takes on more of its 
spiritual activities. A great reservoir of business 
sagacity, energy and enthusiasm has thus been 
opened up among devoted and intelligent layraen. 

What may the layman do for the church? There 
are several suggestions which seem to be pertinent. 

1. The fundamental need is of course financial 



THE LAYMAN AND THE CHURCH 45 

support. Millions and yet more niillions must be 
poured out if we are to reach and satisfy the world's 
need. Hearts everywhere have been touched as 
never before by human rnisery. And never were 
responses so liberal or so freely given. The churches 
may well serve as the organizations through which, 
by means of hospitals, missions, and philanthropic 
work of all kinds, the layman's dollars may be trans- 
mitted into golden help for all who suffer. 

2. The wisdom and good judgment resulting 
from strenuous experience in practical affairs may be 
zealously directed to the business side of church ad- 
ministration. There are always problems to solve, and 
the challenge to the laj^mian is insistent and spurs him 
on to his best efforts. The making of a church budget, 
the collection of annual revenues, wise purchase of 
supplies, economical expenditure of funds, are im- 
portant problems for every church. Perhaps even 
more important is the wise determination of church 
activities. 

3. The influence of laywomen must not be 
overlooked. In all social affairs and in many purely 
business matters, their judgment and co-operation 
are invaluable. Their spiritual zeal is of course 
traditional. Without it many flourishing churches 
would have perished for want of support. The quali- 
ties which women offer to church life and manage- 
ment are indispensable and must be fully utilized. 

4. Laymen are largely responsible for the moral 
standing of their church in the community. If their 



46 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

lives are honest and of good repute they are the very- 
bulwarks of true religion. The church is judged large- 
ly by the lives of its members. What a tremendous 
influence churches might wield if all their members 
would measure their activities by the Golden Rule. 
I look for the day when religion shall cease to be re- 
garded as a mere pious sentimentality, but shall be 
considered as a part of the normal working life of the 
individual. It is needless to say that such an ideal, 
if realized, would mean increased activity in Sunday 
schools, young people's societies, and social service 
work, as well as in the purely religious activities of 
the church. 

5. A new age is dawning. Old barriers are be- 
ing destroyed and life is revealing itself as an old fact 
in ever new garb and fashion. 

Society is becoming more and more complex, 
and new agencies must be employed to meet its new 
situations and problems. We are on the verge of 
profound reconstructions along social and religious 
lines. The genius and enthusiasm of all our people, 
laymen and ministers, men and women, should be 
organized and thrown into this vast and all-important 
work. Here is a field that challenges the finest skill, 
the trained experience, and the solid virtues of all 
classes of church members. Millionaire and day 
laborer, women of fashion and men in homespun, 
the classical scholar and the ignorant peasant, may 
well join hands without class or social distinctions 
in the great work of world regeneration. 



THE SOCIAL MESSAGE OF JESUS 

IT is well known that Jesus laid down no specific 
theories of civil government or social organiza- 
tion. If his saying to the lawyer about the tribute 
money can be construed as having a political meaning, 
it was in favor of the existing order. Nowhere in his 
reported utterances can we learn whether he favored 
the monarchical system then universal or one involv- 
ing greater personal freedom. In the field of economics 
he was equally silent. It is true that he said to the 
rich young man — ''Go, sell all thou hast and give to 
the poor.'' It is equally certain that this reproof was 
personal, provoked by the sordidness of the young 
man's life, and can in no sense be given a general 
application. Such an interpretation would be so 
strained and distorted as totally to lack justification. 
In another place he uttered the profound truth that 
it is difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of 
Heaven. There is not the slightest basis for the 
inference that he favored the abolition of private 
property which some profess to see in this saying. 
The advocates of what is termed Christian Socialism 
are compelled to resort to forced interpretation and 
far-fetched inferences to support the theory that 
Jesus favored Socialism, or indeed any other form of 
economic organization. 

Jesus was essentially a spiritual teacher. Never 



48 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

did he make the mistake of substituting material 
for spiritual agencies. Man does not live by bread 
alone. He lives by the things of the spirit. He is not 
merely an animal, he is an immortal soul. And the 
spiritual life of man is the real one — one that tran- 
scends all questions of matter and time, however 
important these may be. Jesus bases his whole 
appeal, his new Kingdom of God, on the individual 
soul. Contrary to Jewish custom, nowhere did he 
prescribe community salvation or social atonements. 
The human soul is of infinite importance. The su- 
preme goal is individual righteousness. It is as clear 
as the noon-day sun that this was the cornerstone of 
his gospel. Nowhere does he establish a code of social 
economics to cleanse the world's sin or lighten its woes. 
The true basis of Christian doctrine is a right Individu- 
alism. The necessary corollary from this axiom is 
Brotherhood. And the only road which Christ 
points out to attain brotherhood is the royal road of 
Unselfishness. 

To develop Personality thus becomes a part of 
Christian duty as well as of social obligation. We may 
reassure ourselves that when we advocate individual 
growth and development we not only are sound 
economically but are in harmony with Christ's 
teaching. A religious or social ideal which removes 
from the individual the deepest incentives to self- 
improvement must necessarily fail. This is profoundly 
true in the moral world, as evidenced by the constant 
reiteration of Jesus in every sermon and parable. 



THE SOCIAL MESSAGE OF JESUS 49 

Experience has taught us it is no less true in the 
material struggles of life. 

In his long history man has discovered that 
incentives are necessary to develop his highest quali- 
ties. He has learned that it is only a divine discontent 
that drives him on to his noblest efforts. 

Lazy contentedness never yet dug a canal, painted 
a picture, or discovered a new star. Hunger is an 
enemy to be faced and sometimes feared, but it brings 
out man's most daring and successful achievements. 
Sir Walter Scott, writing under the sting of financial 
failure, creates his noblest works of fiction. Robert 
Burns, with the cruel lash of poverty on his bleeding 
back, gives out his sweetest songs to an expectant 
world. Everywhere in literature or life, song or work, 
it is stern necessity that achieves results that are 
worthy to live. Man builds for himself a cathedral. 
He is not satisfied with the hut of a savage. He 
paints a picture, for no purpose that is practical. 
He builds a great literature, that it may feed nothing 
but his immaterial self. He is conscious of inner 
strivings that lift him above the clod and bid him ally 
himself to the immortal and the divine. It is the very- 
essence of sound sociology that these longings should be 
encouraged. But if you develop personality, social- 
ism is impossible, individualism is indispensable. 

Sentimental people are prone to jump at each 
new social theory as containing promise of the mil- 
lennium, especially if it be given a Christian label. 
They should remember that each new idea is on trial. 



50 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

The burden of proof is on its advocates. The pre- 
sumption is in favor of the present order. What the 
race has saved up in institutions, and ideals, and the 
economic organization of society, is presumptively 
better than the mere theories of social reformers. 
Professors and reformers may accumulate correct 
social data, but deduce false conclusions from their 
facts. We distrust their theories not because we dis- 
trust their motives but because we distrust their 
judgment. Enthusiasm for ideals is frequently al- 
lowed to eclipse an ancient experience in the history 
of human development. There are some things as 
eternal as the seas and mountains. The basic facts 
of human nature are comparatively stable throughout 
the centuries. 

One of the most serious mistakes of reformers 
generally is to ascribe the cause of reforms to institu- 
tions rather than to changes in the individual. They 
expect to see a new heaven and earth if you pass a 
Prohibitory amendment, introduce profit-sharing in 
industry, or establish a League of Nations. Human 
beings to them are as clay to the potter, to be shaped 
according to some preconceived social ideal. There 
is of course an element of truth in this theory. 

But the fundamental fact remains that all re- 
forms that are to reinspire social ideals must begin 
with the individual. 

Christ taught, of course, that personal religion 
has social implications. It is not enough to have the 
Kingdom of Heaven within you. There is the ever- 



THE SOCIAL MESSAGE OF JESUS 51 

lasting relation of the Me to the Not-Me; of man to 
his fellow men; of the individual to the State. Where 
is the formula that will solve this riddle that is as old 
as man, that will convince him that when he is saving 
others he is saving himself? This dualism of life is a 
fact we can not get rid of. We are conscious of being 
individual souls, and yet we are imbedded in a social 
mesh that determines the status in which all our 
activities function, and which we affect whenever we 
act at all. The old theology was satisfied if a man 
saved his own soul. The difficulty of the argument is 
that it is impossible for man to save himself. It is 
broadly true that while he is saving himself he is 
saving some one else. 

So man is tossed on this sea of thought between 
two shores, neither of which can he make his secure 
habitation. If possible we must have a religion that 
will minister to the soul in both its inner life and its 
outer relations. The soul must become a strong, 
vigorous unit, and yet serve as a constituent element 
of a plastic social organism wide enough to take in all 
souls. The war, if it has taught us anything, has 
borne in upon our consciousness that man can not 
save himself, that he must be satisfied with nothing 
less than the salvation of all. 

Christ no doubt meant this in those mystical 
phrases that have so puzzled the world — phrases that 
sometimes seem contradictory, because we fail to 
discern their deeper meaning. They seem vague 
and idealistic because spiritual truths can not be 



52 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

stated in purely categorical terms. Neither can they 
be diagrammed or charted by physical processes. 
The smug statements that contain our various creeds 
evidently do not go deep enough. For when we are 
face to face with a great world tragedy they do not 
satisfy the need or the hunger that comes to all in- 
quiring souls. 

The social message of Jesus is based on brother- 
hood. To overcome selfishness in society is the con- 
stant struggle of the statesman, as it is the aim of the 
moralist. There is no economic prescription that can 
accomplish the result. For purely material forces 
might makes right. It is only in the spiritual realm 
that the solution is to be sought. However im- 
practicable it may seem at first thought, the eternal 
truth Is that brotherhood is the necessary basis of 
all lasting peace, and that unselfishness is the only 
key that can unlock the door into the realms of social 
happiness. 



THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL QUESTIONS 

A PROMINENT professor of church history has 
recently written a book in which the chief 
query is — Will the Church survive in the 
changing social order? The book is well written and 
from many of its facts and conclusions we have no 
desire to dissent. The tone, however, is one of chal- 
lenge and criticism, challenge of the existing social 
order, criticism of present church attitudes. Perhaps 
in no single place could one put his finger on a phrase 
and say: Here is a new social philosophy or outline of 
a new industrial scheme. The ''atmosphere'' of the 
book is, however, one that implies that the present 
social order is obsolete, and that a new one is now 
being developed to take its place. A second inference 
is that it is the duty of the Church to adapt itself and 
its message to the new social theories so widely herald- 
ed. The questions the book discusses are of profound 
interest and universal asking, and are fairly representa- 
tive of what is going on in the public mind. It is 
for this reason we consider it worthy of brief attention. 
A chief assumption which runs through the book 
is that the present social order is out of date, that it 
has fallen behind human needs, and that it is in a 
process of rapid transition. This transition is swift 
enough to be styled almost a revolution. Things are 
going to be changed quickly and the Church must 



54 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

hasten its pace to keep up with the progress society 
in its industrial aspects is making. There is a second 
assumption, even more implicitly taken for granted, 
that the only thing the Church can safely do is to 
change its ideals or methods, or both, to correspond 
with these portended changes in industrial and social 
life. 

A conservative-progressive may well hesitate 
to give assent to either of these assumptions, one an 
assum^ption of fact, the other of theory, in their en- 
tirety. It may well be conceded that social forces 
have burst many of their restrictions and are flooding 
the fields of human effort without apparent order or 
restraint. On every hand we hear revolutionary 
programs which are to regenerate society and restore 
at once the golden age. Socialistic theories have had 
an apparently enormous growth. The old is no 
longer entitled to reverence. We must reconstruct 
society anew. We have no faith in the fathers. We 
are wiser than they. The accumulated wisdom and 
experience of the past must be brushed aside as of 
little value. Man has been struggling upward for 
thousands of years with most of his energies mis- 
directed and his efforts wasted. We thought great 
advances had been made when Magna Charta was 
won, when the Charter of Right was obtained, when 
representative government was established, when the 
United States of America was founded on a professed 
basis of democracy, the essence of which is the right 
of the majority to rule. 



THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL QUESTIONS 55 

We are now told this leads to tyranny by a majori- 
ty — ^an unendurable proposition. Instead of rule 
by a majority it is proposed to substitute a rule of 
each class by itself, which is the central idea of the 
soviet system in Russia. This is a reversion to the 
Guild system of the Middle Ages, when the builders, 
the weavers, the merchants, formed their own rules 
and governed themselves apart from the community. 
The Plumb plan of railroad management, quoted 
approvingly although guardedly in the book above 
referred to, is an adaptation of this Middle Age sys- 
tem, which arose only out of necessity in the anarchic 
conditions of the times. 

The adoption of the soviet or class control would 
be the creation of an imperium in imperio which would 
tend to disintegrate society into a thousand clashing 
units. Theoretically it is the opposite of any general 
scheme of socialism or social control. It would sub- 
stitute for the so-called tyranny of the majority the 
successive t3n:'anny of countless small units of the body 
politic. And this in the so-called interest of freedom! 
It is not our purpose to do more than call attention 
to how far afield most of these heralded new doctrines 
are from the accumulated experience and wisdom of 
the ages. If they are to be adopted it should be with 
our eyes open and after full and free discussion with 
no camouflaging the issues. There is at least the fair 
presumption that the past has produced the best of 
which humanity has been capable, and that this should 
be preserved till something better can be obtained. 



56 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

One type of illustration in this little book is con- 
stantly used. It is the familiar historical allusion. 
But of all fallacies the historic parallel is the deadliest. 
Almost impossible it is to reconstruct a former age 
and discover all the countless influences at work to 
mold and determ.ine its fate — influences historical, 
social, moral, geographical. Historians themselves 
do not agree, and there have been dozens of theories 
as to why Greece and Rome fell, all of them exclusive 
and asserted with the utmost dogmatism. Post hoc 
propter hoc is a familiar argument, which dece:ves no 
one who has lived long enough to think clearly for 
himself. 

It is still a moot question whether society will 
reconstruct itself into a new social order. Already we 
see conservative forces at work to restore equilibrium 
to our sorely harassed social order. We do not know 
what changes if any are to be adopted, or what direc- 
tion they shall take. Perhaps it would be well to wait 
the outcome before committing the Church too far 
to changes which can apply to society only in prophecy. 
And to prophesy is not only dangerous, but of little 
practical value. 

Just to preserve the record and that there be no 
chance of misunderstanding, perhaps it would be 
well enough to state at this time that the writer is not 
opposed to proper changes in legislation or economics. 
He professes himself a progressive. He is in sympathy 
with every forward movement, in politics, in morals, 
in theology, in church administration. Only it must 



THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL QUESTIONS 57 

be proved that proposed changes really constitute 
an advance. He admits that he is conservative 
enough to want to preserve all that is good out of the 
past until something better can take its place. He is 
progressive enough to welcome all honest inquiry and 
to advocate fearlessly whatever new or novel doctrines 
will really advance the cause of truth and justice. 
The world can not afford to take chances with every 
social theory that professes human betterment. On 
the other hand it can not afford to reject any plan, 
however revolutionary it may seem, which the de- 
liberate judgment of mankind approves. 

Another caution seems necessary in an age which 
apparently has taken off the brakes. In nearly every 
discussion we have seen, and likewise in the book 
referred to, it has been assumed that freedom in itself 
is a goal, almost a rehgion. At least no qualifications 
are stated. Every step in the direction of freedom is 
a step forward. If we can remove all fetters the 
human spirit will be happiest, noblest, best. Every 
great struggle of history, so goes the historical argu- 
ment again, has been a struggle for freedom. Greece 
is cited, the Roman plebs, Dutch burghers, Crom- 
well's Puritans, Washington's Continentals. These 
are classical examples of those tremendous conflicts 
which have shattered thrones, and introduced new 
and glorious eras in human government. And so 
they are. The argument is plausible. Only it may be 
carried too far. In the very nature of things there 
must come a time when freedom — at least individual 



58 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

freedom — must end. In the moral realm there is a 
point where freedom means moral anarchy. After 
you reach a certain stage the progress of society con- 
sists in a series of restrictions upon the freedom of 
individuals. The freshest illustration is the recent 
Prohibitory Amendment, which is a pronounced ad- 
vance of the theory of social restriction into a realm 
for hundreds of years considered sacred to individual 
freedom. More and more society grows complex, and 
the old freedoms must be surrendered or circumscribed 
so as to give larger scope for the play of social rights 
and duties. The true position of our Church would 
seem to be plain — that we should advocate the free- 
doms that enable the human soul to grow and develop^ 
the restrictions that prevent men from infringing upon 
that sacred realm that belongs to other souls. 

The above is only preliminary. The real ques- 
tion is. What is the duty of the Church in our times? 
We may well be content to sink all questions of mere 
statement, or form of argument, in the presence of 
the profoundest question the Church in this age has 
been called upon to meet. And there can not well 
be too much discussion of this subject. The book we 
have simply taken as a text is eminently fair in con- 
sidering this crucial matter, and we call attention to 
its fallacies only to bring out more clearly the main 
question at issue. 

If the Church has a historic mission perhaps it 
would be better if it would remain true to that mis- 
sion. It at least has no selfish motive to distract. 



THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL QUESTIONS 59 

It has its eyes fixed, not on temporary advantages or 
political ends, but on magnificent ideals of truth and 
justice. 

Why should the Church change its ideals even 
if it knew it could derive temporary advantage, if 
thereby it sacrificed its continuity of purpose and its 
ultimate goal? It may be unpopular for the moment. 
Men may rage against it if it refuses to surrender its 
priceless jewels to their selfish purposes. They may 
pass resolutions against it, declare there is no God, 
abolish its ceremonies, banish its priests and advocates. 
So much the worse for the Church's enemies. For we 
may well be assured that their victory can be only 
short-lived. The passions of the hour will subside. 
Reason will regain her throne. The soul of man will 
again demand religious inspiration, God will come 
back to earth and the Church will resume her an- 
cient functions. 

Is it the mission of the Church to enter into 
politics, or adjust economic disputes, or decide ques- 
tions as to the social order? Is the Church a material 
or a spiritual agency? Is it' to be a referee in industrial 
disputes or a guide in spiritual affairs? Should it 
plunge into the arena of economic battles, espousing 
the cause that seems at the time best, or hold itself 
firmly to its spiritual functions? 

Sometimes we have been so busy with religion as 
a speculative theology that we have forgotten its 
practical bearing. There are two commandments in 
Jesus' creed — love to God and love to man. The 



60 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

brotherhood of man is the corollary and crown of the 
Fatherhood of God — that by which the latter be- 
comes of value. Our Liberal Churches have been em- 
phasizing religion as a guide to conduct, but the Chris- 
tian world at large still believes that religion is chiefly 
a preparation for a future existence. 

Wherever we have tried to put the Golden Rule 
into practise we have gravitated into Socialism, mystic 
cults, dangerous economic doctrines. Many churches, 
carried away by altruistic motives and sympathy for 
suffering, are prone to think they ought to engage in 
economic contests. The province of the Church, in 
my judgment, is purely spiritual. It has no commis- 
sion to invade the field of economics, or to engage in 
political disputes. The only question it should ask 
of an institution or an industrial process is — Is it 
right or wrong? It may not ask whether it is wasteful 
or extravagant, or harmful to the state. It may be 
extremely unwise and hurtful, and yet the Church 
as a Church should not interfere. 

The relations between capital and labor, profit- 
sharing, housing conditions, and questions of that 
character, are economic or social, not religious. We 
should be clear in our thinking and recognize our 
limitations as well as our rights. 

The field of religious work should be carefully 
delimited that we may conserve our energy and in- 
fluence. The Church has a special and precise fimc- 
tion, to stand guard over and minister to the spirit of 
man. It has a special authority for, a peculiar fitness 



TKE CHURCH AND SOCIAL QUESTIONS 61 

to perform, this noble, divine mission. Only when it 
descends into the arena of political or economic strife, 
where its training does not enable it to see clearly- 
all the factors involved, is it shorn of its influence and 
power. 

The objection will no doubt be made that most 
things directly or indirectly affect moral values and 
have moral effects. These, you may say, come very 
properly within the sphere of the Church. But a 
little clear thinking will convince us of the error of 
such a contention. Most religious views and actions 
affect the welfare of the state. Should the state, 
therefore, interfere as it did in the Middle Ages with 
religious beliefs? If not, neither should the Church 
interfere with matters which are the proper subject 
of legislation. Separation of Church and State is 
one of the precious heritages of the great struggles 
for liberty from Magna Charta to the Great War. 
Each institution performs its true function in the 
most effective way when it frankly recognizes its 
logical frontiers and confines itself to its own proper 
sphere. 

Another objection is that this method is too 
slow, that the Church has a vast machinery at its 
command by which it can speed up the processes of 
social reform and reconstruction. 

Probably in individual instances that is true. If 
we are looking only at the immediate problem to be 
solved we might be justified in leaving our own terri- 
tory and invading the frontiers of evil with all the 



62 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

militant weapons of the Church. But religion is not 
for a day. The Church is to live on and on. There 
will be other battles to fight. There will be other 
injustices to remedy. Evil checked in one direction 
finds a way to appear in another and perhaps more 
dangerous guise. Moral and spiritual forces should 
be maintained at their utmost efficiency for the long 
battles of an infinite future. If they are thrown into 
every fray, however worthy, they will be weakened for 
service in the realm in which they operate to the best 
advantage. 

We are frequently impatient to engage the Church 
in social struggles because indirect methods seem so 
weak and ineffective. Invisible forces seem to many 
unreal and non-existent. Nevertheless, they are 
often the most potent of all. The air we breathe is 
invisible yet firmly envelops and conditions every 
act of our lives. Religion is just such an enveloping 
force, impalpable yet very real, invisible yet binding 
with stronger bands than iron. It is the universal 
solvent. It proclaims no social panacea, champions 
no set form of government or economics, yet enters 
into and determines these by the direction and energy 
it imparts to the human spirit. 

If the toiling masses have lost faith in the Church, 
as some assert but which can not be conceded, for 
they probably have as much confidence now as they 
ever have had, the Church will not regain that con- 
fidence by abdicating its fimctions and catering to the 
passing demands which change their form with each 



THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL QUESTIONS 63 

decade. It must retain its dignity, its true spiritual 
tone and potency. 

In the great social reconstructions now going on 
the Church is to be a molder of events. But it will not 
succeed by dictating legislation. Its mission is to 
furnish the pattern of society's future for the states- 
man to weave into the living fabric. It will furnish 
the new social design, and that design must come from 
Judea and not from Potsdam, not from Machiavelli 
but from Jesus of Nazareth. 

The Church, as a Church, is not well enough in- 
formed to dogmatize on specific economic questions. 
It is manifestly unable to prescribe hours of labor, or 
fix a minimum wage, or advocate government owner- 
ship of railroads, or any of the various remedies for 
social ills that are forever springing up and attracting 
attention for their brief day. We have recently wit- 
nessed an attempt to settle in ideal fashion the con- 
flicting boundaries of various European states. The 
problem in the background seemed a comparatively 
simple one of race and language. But the attempt 
to realize this ideal in practise unchained a lot of 
formidable forces that had been unnoticed, but which 
suddenly blazed forth with an intensity that was 
amazing. To our consternation, we found the prob- 
lem bound up confusedly with questions of geography, 
of trade outlets, of natural resources such as coal and 
oil, of historic associations, and cultural ideals. 

What forward constructive social work may the 
Church undertake? Intensely interested as it is in 



64 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

men what may it do to humanize the conditions under 
which they live and work? Reforms are needed and 
no one wishes the Church to be an idle spectator of 
the human comedy. 

The Church may well undertake to create the 
atmosphere in which social institutions operate. It 
should foster a spirit of unselfishness, that humane 
quality of thought which should envelop and deter- 
mine the relations between all classes of employers 
and employees. Men are brothers — this should be its 
slogan, and it should firmly insist that brotherliness 
permeate all our processes of production and dis- 
tribution. Above even the necessities of producing 
the things whereby we live should stand the motto 
that men are not machines and that their interests 
should be a first social consideration. The conditions 
under which they live affect not only their material 
well being but their immortal destinies. As members 
of the great human family whatever affects them in- 
juriously hurts all classes of society. The Church 
should take a friendly interest in all those matters 
that concern man in his human capacity as distin- 
guished from the social structure which for the time 
being has been adopted. It may avoid caste, bring 
classes into friendly association, point out the ad- 
vantage of unselfish co-operation, and above all the 
necessity of absolute justice. 

Its sympathy for men and women is the one 
invaluable element the Church may contribute. In 
the maze of social questions this should be the beacon 



THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL QUESTIONS 65 

light which it kindles and maintains. No light burden ; 
no insignificant task. It may well call forth its wisest 
thought, its noblest efforts. 

If the Church remains true to its fundamental 
truths and principles it need have no fear of losing its 
power and influence. Society has gone through 
countless changes and revolutions in the course of 
human history. But above the ocean of time the 
essential truths of religion glitter like stars in the 
firmament of humanity. They are the changeless, 
eternal facts in a changing world. 



RELIGION AND BUSINESS 

CHRISTIANITY has been in the world nearly 
two thousand years. If Christ should return 
to-day what would he say? What attitude 
would he take with regard to the difl&cult problems 
that perplex society? Are we really as well as nomi- 
nally Christian? To what extent has the Christian 
spirit permeated business relations? Are Christian 
ideals visible in the daily life of the people? 

1. I make bold to assert that ethical standards 
in business are higher to-day than ever before. There 
is a noticeable tendency to recognize the human ele- 
ment in all our commercial dealings. We have re- 
cently taken the advanced position that labor is not 
a commodity, but the laborer possesses a soul and is 
entitled to better and higher consideration than here- 
tofore. Greater regard is paid to hours of labor, 
sanitation, a living wage, housing conditions, school 
privileges, and recreation. 

Gradually the whole field of labor is being lifted 
from one of grinding toil and poverty into a condition 
of self-respect and self-support. The laborer is be- 
coming a social and spiritual as well as an economic 
asset. 

2. The standards of commercial honesty are 
much higher than ever before. There is a constantly 
increasing number of business men who realize that 



68 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

honesty is the best policy. They are taking these 
advanced ethical positions from moral as well as 
financial considerations. Society, too, has roused 
itself to the necessity of protecting its weaker mem- 
bers from the disastrous effects of the social strife. 
The old doctrine was laissez faire. The fields of 
business were open to all, and no restraints were 
put on the more efficient or the unscrupulous. The 
law, too, operated only to protect against violence 
or open fraud, and never professed to intervene 
in social relations to even up the natural differences 
between indi\iduals. In recent years, however, we 
have invented a new social conscience. Society re- 
gards its human units as valuable social assets. For 
their protection and increased efficiency society pro- 
vides schools of many varieties and enacts laws which 
throw aroimd them the benevolent guidance of its 
collective wisdom. 

3. We are not compelled, however, to rely wholly 
on legal enactments in current business and politics. 
Evidences are multiplying that, in spite of the widely 
heralded corruption in these fields, much of which is 
unfortunately but too true, there is a higher code of 
business and professional ethics than ever before. I 
think we can perceive among business men more 
than enforced compliance with the safeguards an 
awakened social conscience has thrown around its 
weaker members. There is a growing altruism, a 
positive feeling of human sjTnpathy and brotherhood 
between capital and labor, employer and employee, 



RELIGION AND BUSINESS 69 

rich and poor. This tendency is most encouraging. 
It is religion put into daily practise. It is Christianity 
at work. It took thousands of years with numberless 
tragedies to drive into the religious consciousness of 
man the idea of the oneness, the unity of God. The 
unity and brotherhood of humanity is, in these latter 
days, though far from being completely realized, 
coming nearer and nearer being an accomplished fact. 
4. I wish as the most emphatic and solemn part 
of my thesis to make this specific statement. It is 
entirely possible and feasible to mix religion and busi- 
ness. One may be both a Christian — that is a work- 
ing Christian — and a successful business man. They 
who maintain otherwise have a narrow and distorted 
view of what constitutes success in business. I main- 
tain that the accumulation of money is only one phase, 
and indeed not an indispensable phase, of success. 
Good-will, the respect of customers and clients, public 
confidence, moral integrity, self-respect, are essential 
elements. These are the ''imponderables'' of business 
which far outweigh purely material considerations. 
What Wolsey called ''a clear and quiet conscience" 
is more to be desired than much fine gold. I assert 
again that one may be a successful banker, farmer, or 
lawyer and preserve the most scrupulous honesty. 
Observation of more than a quarter of a century 
enables me to declare most emphatically that the 
successful lawyer does not need to resort to sharp 
practises or illegal methods. That there is great 
temptation to do so will be admitted. But the golden 



70 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

rewards at the bar are won by men of the highest 
integrity. It is equally true in other fields of profes- 
sional or business life. The temptations which come 
along the highways of business may be successfully 
resisted by one who is fortified by an active conscience 
and guided by a spiritual conception of his duties to 
his fellow men. It is a part of correct religious teach- 
ing to cultivate such a conscience and social concep- 
tion. 

I have touched ony a few of the various de- 
partments of business. With variations in detail 
they all present the same general features and the 
same general observations apply equally to all. The 
youth of our land should be taught, until they are 
thoroughly ingrained with it, the notion that moral 
qualities are part of one's outfit as he engages in 
business, and that his religious convictions should be 
carried in his knapsack through all the journey of life. 



WHAT IS SUCCESS? 

WHEN men acquire wealth, position, power, dis- 
tinction, in any field of literature or art, the 
world regards them, and they take pride in 
regarding themselves, as successful men. I have no 
quarrel with the general conclusion, always with the 
express reservation that wealth or position shall be 
won by fair means. So far as the artist is concerned 
the matter is scarcely debatable. Artistic eminence 
is almost universally based on merit alone. The work 
of the artist is objective and speaks for itself. If the 
world admires the product it honors its creator and 
success is well deserved. 

In the fields of business or politics the case is 
different. Deception, pull, demagogy, often elevate 
a man regardless of individual merit. Business men 
deal with conditions largely personal and temporary. 
They work upon the plastic materials of human nature. 
Often their methods are hidden from public view. 
Nobody cares for the details of other men's business 
affairs. It is only too common that many men know- 
ing these facts adopt business methods regardless of 
moral considerations. This is one of the tragedies of 
business life viewed from an ethical standpoint. 
Christianity faces here its severest test. Ethical 
ideals in a man's life must be strong enough to enable 
him to resist temptation and to be absolutely honest 



72 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

when no one sees, when no one can prevent the tem- 
porary success of dishonesty. There are too many 
advocates of the perverted maxim which Mohere puts 
into the mouth of Tartuffe — 'To sin in secret is not 
to sin at all/' 

And yet religion must face this most difficult 
task. No one is truly a Christian who is not able to 
stand the test of secret temptation. For success 
rightly defined is not objective alone, such as the 
world is able to see and appraise. It is subjective, a 
matter of conscience and character. That is why we 
define the function of religion as we do, a thing that 
aims at the growth and education of the soul. It should 
create a fortified character as its highest product 
rather than a mere emotional readiness to respond to 
religious suggestions. The latter may be valuable, 
but only as a means of securing the former. Absolute 
integrity of soul is the supreme goal of reUgious teach- 
ing, as it is the supreme glory of personal attainment. 

Apparent success that is obtained at the expense 
of honest methods is not real success. What I wish to 
say as emphatically as possible is that true success 
must be measured by moral as well as material stan- 
dards. It must have a spiritual as well as a material 
content. Outward prosperity and inward baseness do 
not spell success. They are a spurious counterfeit. 
The genuine article is a product of moral worth and 
material efficiency. The merchant who sells defective 
goods, the lawyer who suborns witnesses and wins a 
lawsuit upon perjured testimony, the employer who 



WHAT IS SUCCESS? 73 

amasses a fortune by paying his employees less than 
a living wage, the man who in any direction builds 
his prosperity by unjust methods and dishonest 
means, is not truly successful. Measured by temporary 
applause he may deceive himself and others by an 
apparent prosperity. But his success is built on the 
sands and will in time crumble. Young men especially 
should learn the lesson at the outset of their careers 
that honesty is the only policy that pays dividends 
throughout the entire course of a business life. 

Fortunately the assurance is ''doubly sure'' that 
complete honesty is fully compatible with the highest 
degree of worldly success. The great characters 
whom the world delights to honor were men who 
attained success by merit and not deception. Wash- 
ington lives in American history fully as much through 
confidence in his supreme integrity and solidity of 
character as from the great services he rendered the 
struggling colonies. Lincoln is revered for having 
freed a race from bondage. He was enabled to 
accomplish his divine mission only because his political 
honesty rose mountain-like above his intellectual 
qualities. It is part of the recompense of the divine 
law that moral honesty is its own reward, that con- 
science and integrity beget the confidence that flows 
into increased power and influence. If I could say 
but one thing that would be remembered by any of 
my young readers it would be that moral integrity 
and true material success go hand in hand and are 
inseparable. 



74 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

There is still another phase of what we call suc- 
cess that is worthy of our most thoughtful considera- 
tion. True success in life is not measured by the dol- 
lars we accumulate, the fame we achieve or the monu- 
ments that are erected in our memory after we die. 
A man mxay be poor yet be in the truest sense of the 
word successful. He may not see his name in the 
lists of the great, or have crowds cheer him whenever 
he appears in public. Fame may not blow his name 
from her trumpet. Yet by every definition his life 
may be a blessing and a benefit to his fellow men. 
He may be a true friend. He may help the needy and 
unfortunate. He may be only a humble toiler and 
work long and hard for his daily bread. But if he 
does his work well his life has been a success. It is 
high time that we revise our personal and social 
judgments in the light of permanent and eternal values. 
If I write a poem, or paint a picture, or discover a new 
star, I am adding to the sum of human knowledge and 
happiness. If I am not able to do any of those worthy 
and important things, I may still be of real service to 
my fellow men. 

Whoever builds a boat so staunchly and well that 
it will stand the severest test of wind and wave, is a 
public benefactor. The doctor whose skill saves 
precious human lives, the lawyer who gives both his 
client and opponent *'a square deal,'' the mason who 
refuses to build a poor foundation even though his 
faults may be concealed, is worthy not only of con- 
fidence but of praise. In short, the method of doing 



WHAT IS SUCCESS? 75 

the work rather than the nature of the work itself 
should determine our estimate of its worth. The man, 
rather than the job, the soul more than its achieve- 
ment, are the things of supreme value. 

It is time not only for a theoretical but a practical 
revision of social values. The scavenger, if he does 
his work well, saves the lives of his fellow men as 
surely as the high-priced surgeon in the operating 
room of the most magnificent hospital. Why, then, 
should we not honor him for his loving efficiency and 
thorough honesty? Social discontent would largely 
vanish if every vocation were rated by the manner in 
which it is conducted, rather than whether it involved 
a so-called menial task. The man who puts coal into 
my cellar, if he does it well, is at least as good a man 
as the general who wins a battle. 

William James, in his ''Moral Equivalent of War," 
lays down the theory that some motive must hence- 
forth be substituted for war, in order to keep alive the 
intense straining energies that war provokes. 

Where can this be found? If we hate no longer 
where is the spring of action? 

May it not be found in the new idea of chivalry^ 
of warfare against pestilence, disease, ignorance, and 
other social evils? The old ideal was growth, indi- 
vidual development. The new ideal is service. Are 
there not soldiers who will enlist to clean up the tene- 
ments, better housing conditions, and make life more 
endurable for those who are submerged? And above 
purely material considerations is there not a fine and 



76 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

liigh idealism in scientific discoveries, the encourage- 
ment of art, the beautification of cities, the spreading 
of religion? And should we not cultivate the idea 
that the labor of each individual, whether dignified or 
menial, is to be treated as a form of social service — 
his contribution to the good of society? 

The best motto which I could suggest for all who 
are just beginning life is this — 

True success in life is measured not by the job you 
have, but by how well you perform your task in life. 

If this maxim should be thoroughly imbedded in 
the thought and practise of men, it would revolu- 
tionize society. The pulpit can proclaim no more 
practical message. The laity can add glory to human 
nature by making its precepts a part of their daily 
religion. 



RELIGION AND EVOLUTION 

JUST sixty years ago, Darwin announced his 
epoch-making doctrine. It is not too much to 
say that it has revolutionized most of our science 
and our philosophy. Whole new systems of thought 
have been built around the theory of evolution. There 
is probably not a scientist or thinker of note now living 
who is not a firm believer in the doctrine. It has cap- 
tured the intellectual world so completely that it 
dominates our entire processes of education and cul- 
ture. 

Its triumph did not come, however, without a 
struggle. The battles that raged around it were fierce 
and relentless. Scholars doubted, science hesitated, 
the Church condemned. Most Orthodox people still 
regard it with suspicion, although unable to disprove 
it. It seems strange now that it should have caused 
such excitement and dismay in religious camps. And 
yet historically the explanation is simple. Evolution 
was only the culminating point of a series of scientific 
facts that seemed to attack religion. Many were 
dazzled and confused by the scientific discoveries of 
a brilliant century. To the thoughtless observer it 
seemed as if God was altogether eliminated, or at least 
reduced to an insignificant role in the march of events. 
As one by one new truths became known and laws 
were observed to govern all phenomena, men rashly 



78 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

assumed there was no place left in the universe for 
God. His throne had been usurped by natural law. 
He was compelled to abdicate in favor of chemical 
and physical forces. Even life was accounted for 
by evolutionary processes, so that even in the realm 
of man there seemed no place for a creative personality. 
Everything — the physical universe, the existence of 
our planet, the growth of vegetable and animal life, 
and even man himself, was predetermined and fixed 
for all time by the play of purely natural forces. 
God in men's short-sighted reasoning retreated farther 
and farther until He was vaguely sensed as mere 
law, impersonal and uncaring. Men ceased to be- 
lieve in His existence, worshiped only at the altars of 
science, discarded their religion, forgot to pray. 
They said: Increase the magnifying power of your mi- 
croscopes, you can not find God there. Lengthen your 
telescopes and peer into the deepest depths of space, 
still God is not there. With scalpel and x-ray search 
for Him in the human organism. He evades your 
minutest analysis. There is no place left where He 
may be, either in the external world on in man. 

Men are already recoiling from such blank doubt 
and negation. They are beginning to see that evo- 
lution does not account for things, it applies only to 
processes. And as studied in the laboratory it applies 
only to physical processes, not to the things of the 
spirit. Darwin was studying the science of matter, 
not of the soul. He was not rash enough to deny the 
'existence of a realm which defied his most rigid in- 



RELIGION AND EVOLUTION 79 

vestigations, and transcended the processes he de- 
scribed and charted. So the old problem remained, 
and after the first shock of incredulity and surprise 
men returned to faith and to the study of religion. 
They began to realize that the scientist has never 
charted the world of the soul. He has made no map 
or diagram of its basic facts or salient features. For 
the very good reason that the soul can not be ex- 
plored or diagnosed by physical instruments. 

It is the proud boast of the liberal that for him 
there is no conflict between religion and science. He 
can and does accept the facts of science as absolutely 
true, without impairing at all his faith in religion and 
in the truths of the spiritual world. What he teaches 
about the Bible and the world of nature in Sunday 
school does not contradict what his pupils afterwards 
learn in their science classes in high school or college. 
If the facts taught by science are true we do not make 
them false by pointing to the Bible. If Genesis does 
not harmonize with geology so much the worse for 
Genesis. 

Simple fiat or evolutionary process — which one 
furnishes the nobler lineage for man? If the latter is 
the correct theory, then man has come up through 
countless gradations and after countless struggles. 
I find in this added proof of the hberal theory as to 
man and his future destiny. The first living cell con- 
tained man potentially. Through untold geologic 
ages the man-impulse struggled upward and would not 
be denied. It passed through simple organisms that 



80 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

merely fed and reproduced, though reptile and bird 
and mammal to man's present proud pre-eminence 
among living things. It overcame flood, and fire, and 
frost, and hostile animals, so strong was the upward 
urge within. If it triumphed over these under its 
almost fatal handicap of weakness and non-intelli- 
gence, what dazzling heights may it not aspire to in 
the long millions of years that lie ahead? Here is 
convincing proof that within man there is an upward 
predestination that can not fail to lead him into 
final harmony with the universe and its Creator. 

You ask whether evolution holds true in the 
spiritual world. If the moral faculties man already 
possesses have been evolved I see no reason to deny 
that the process may continue in the imfolding of 
man's spiritual powers. So far as we can trace 
them we see thought, feeling, emotion, will, emerging 
out of the dramatic struggles and experiences of man. 
Conscience, too, is born out of social relationships, 
creating a sense of right and wrong. It seems clear 
that in the slow process of evolution there came a time 
when a moral faculty was evolved. And with con- 
science there is born unselfishness. Altruism is 
legitimate fruit of this tree, and adds its force to the 
future development of man. 

Instead, then, of hesitating to accept the great 
cardinal truth of evolution we should recognize in it the 
assurance of still further, indeed endless, progress. 
Still higher and nobler moral qualities will be developed. 
We boldly claim that with the ceaseless operation of 



RELIGION AND EVOLUTION 81 

the evolutionary process God will triumph at last, 
and that the entire universe will finally come into 
complete harmony with His Divine Will. 

It would be well worth while to develop a religious 
philosophy that would enable us to see the relation 
between cause and effect, the soul and the body, the 
seen and the unseen. Such a system ought to satisfy 
the intellect, for we shall forever be dependent on men- 
tal processes for the maintenance of a comfortable 
existence. But it must also reach into realms where 
the intellect has found no path of entrance. We may 
paraphrase Matthew Arnold's definition — "Religion is 
Knowledge touched by divine fire." But man also feels 
and wills. And any scheme to be complete and satis- 
factory must recognize the triangle of man's nature, 
and furnish proper stimuli for all his faculties. 

An old theory put in attractive modern garb by 
Bergson raises the question whether the universe is 
continually self-creative. Is it a finished product, a 
finality for all ages to come, or a continual Becoming? 
If new products are ever coming into being there may 
be light ahead for suffering humanity. If God still 
fashions new forces of law and self-sacrifice and beauty 
then we are struggling toward a status and a goal where 
the misfortunes of life may disappear and happiness 
be substituted in their place. 



PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS 

THE Great War is over but the world still reels 
from the mighty blow. Men everywhere are 
in a disturbed psychological condition. There 
are strikes and lockouts, jealousies and hate in every 
community. It would seem that Macbeth's witches 
were brewing an international caldron with 

''Bubble, bubble, 
Toil and trouble," 

as the principal ingredient. The railroads have be- 
come the football of politics and all kinds of nefarious 
projects. Prices of the necessaries of life go soaring 
until our amazement turns into callous though not 
pious resignation. Each group claims it is the victim 
of profiteering by some other class. Capital is too 
frightened to show its head and must work in secret 
to retain its status and influence. Everything is 
questioned. There are no longer any orthodox theories 
in political economy. Consistency of opinion has 
vanished. Stiff conservatives are advocating the 
wildest radicalism in their zeal to bring down the high 
cost of living. Staid High Churchmen are begging 
their parishioners to turn the church into a vaudeville 
to attract worshipers. For the church as a sacred 
institution there is apparent but little reverence or 
respect. Pious customs with the beauty and dignity 



84 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

of immemorial tradition behind them are openly flout- 
ed by an irreverent age. Sanctity no longer rules 
rebellious hearts and the cross itself is scarcely more 
than a symbol of a beautiful but fading idealism. 

These are the surface appearances in these days 
of stress and storm. The billows that lash the ocean 
of society mount to the very stars and their foam 
dashes over the decks where humanity in peril is 
breasting the storm. If our eyes could see no farther 
and our minds read no deeper lesson sad indeed would 
be our fate. The experienced mariner knows, however ^ 
that there are ocean depths that are never disturbed, 
and faces the tempest with the confident hope that the 
billows will soon subside and the angry waves disap- 
pear. Storms can not beat forever. Sooner or later 
the fires of hate will burn themxselves out, passions 
recede and reason resume her reign. 

In the maze of chaotic social conditions it is not 
strange if the Church is perplexed as to its duty and 
opportunity. If society is to be revolutionized what 
is to be the function of the Church? Will the old 
formulas retain their power? Will the old human 
needs reassert themselves in compelling fashion and 
bring back song and prayer and worship? 

Or must the Church recast its methods even to 
the changing of its creeds and ancient modes of wor- 
ship? We hear every angle of the problem discussed, 
and numerous are the remedies proposed. That the 
Church is alive to the problem is apparent in every 
newspaper and magazine. We see advertisements 



PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS 85 

boldly proclaiming the virtues of religion as if it were 
a newly invented pill. 

Froni a religious institution the Church threatens 
to become a social club. It no longer emphasizes the 
theoretical part of religion. Creeds hoary with age 
are forgotten, forms of worship that answered the 
deep cry of the human soul in vanished centuries are 
quietly laid away. We are afraid to preach the eternal 
verities of religion. We do human nature the great 
injustice of assuming it has no depth of feeling or 
stability of character, or changelessness of purpose. 
We assume the war has changed human nature in its 
religious aspect, largely, I suppose, because it has up- 
set so many other old traditions. Perhaps if we can 
visualize and classify the supposed changes the war 
has wrought we may be able better to appraise them 
and devise a remedy. The indictment reads some- 
what as follows: 

1. We assume the bloody experiences through 
which they passed have hardened the soldiers so they 
will not respond to religious influences. 

2. They have lost faith in a rehgion which failed 
to prevent the greatest of all wars. 

3. God can not be seen in the shock of battle, 
but belief in blind fate becomes common. 

4. The war proves that selfishness still rules 
the world and that Christianity has made but little 
impression on man's real nature. 

The Church in its human aspect must not lose its 
hold upon its members. If possible they must be 



86 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

retained within its influence. As the soldiers came 
home hardened, bronzed, blase, how shall the Church 
approach theni? It is an all important question. 

In the first place it is by no means proved that 
the soldiers care less for religion than they did before 
the war. For many years prior to the war it was a 
common saying that the Church had lost its hold on 
the masses of the people. On the other hand the war 
sobered many who had never given religion serious 
consideration. To the soldier it was a tremendous 
thought-impelling experience. The mighty issues 
involved, the terrible sacrifices of life, the awful hard- 
ships, made a profound impression. That impression 
convinced most soldiers that life is a solemn thing, 
that single lives are relatively insignificant, that social 
welfare is essential if man is to progress. Fundamen- 
tally religion teaches these very things and I think 
they prepare the soil and sow the seed in the soldier's 
mind for the more spiritual truths which religion has 
to offer. 

The second count in the indictment might prove 
more serious if all nations were equally permeated by 
the Christian spirit. Unfortunately the peaceful 
precepts of Jesus had not penetrated deeply into the 
German soul. The war was forced upon those nations 
with the most pacific ideals and they must either fight 
or be extinguished. Few realize how near the Christian 
ideal came to perishing utterly in the mighty struggle. 

We may confidently expect people to revise the 
hasty opinion that religion failed in the supreme test. 



PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS 



87 



Undoubtedly a belief in blind fate had a temporary 
growth among the soldiers in the trenches. And 
perhaps they became better soldiers therefor. If 
nothing can avert the day of doom or change the 
decrees of fate, the soldier flings h^'mself into battle 
with an utter disregard of life. But I doubt if the 
soldier has carried this back with him as a fixed opinion 
into the ordinary pursuits of life. While the exaltation 
caused by the play of mighty forces around him in- 
duced the idea of his littleness and lack of power to 
determine his own fate, there is no such combination 
of circumstances in peaceful life. There he seems 
master of his own powers, his own destiny. The wave 
of mighty feeling subsides and leaves the old shore line 
of his thought with much the same features as before. 

So far from selfishness being the chief factor in the 
world's life I think there has never been such a dem- 
onstration in history of unselfishness as the great 
war provoked. Millions poured out their lifeblood 
for an idea. There was no thought of selfish gain in 
their sacrifices. They did not fight for territory, or 
wealth or power. America especially went into the 
struggle with the noblest sentiments of idealism. We 
wanted to preserve the liberty for which the ages had 
struggled. We wanted to prevent the triumph of 
force as governing human relations. The tears and 
sorrows that obscure the sun of happiness for so many 
millions were a conscious gift by them to the new 
altruism whose blossoms are to beautify and bless the 
world. 



88 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

The soldier, however, is not the only class which 
gives the Church deep concern. Civilian life does not 
seem deeply penetrated with the religious spirit. 
Churches receive nominal recognition, but little real 
respect. 

Laborers sometimes complain that the conserva- 
tism of the Church operates strongly against their 
radical proposals. They forget that the Church is 
not free to espouse every new economic idea. The 
Church's function is not within the sphere of economic 
forces. If it should enter this field it would soon find 
itself in the midst of bitter conflicts, and would incur 
the deepest enmity. The safest plan for the Church is 
to pursue the even tenor of its way, and to stand aloof 
from the economic struggles that shake society to its 
foundations. 

In time the tides of war will recede from our 
intellectual shores and we shall again see and reason 
with calm serenity. I have an implicit behef that 
human nature changes but little throughout the 
centuries. Fashions chiange in art, literature, dress, 
amusements. But the ocean depths of the mind re- 
main the same. Physical energies still strive to master 
the world of matter around us. Emotions still re- 
spond to the magic play of sentiment, of joy and grief. 
The struggles necessary to win a sustenance for the 
body still demand intelligent foresight and industry. 
Conscience continues to remind us of a higher realm 
and a higher duty to our fellow men. 

Men are still selfish and ambitious as they always 



PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS 89 

have been. But their dramatic experiences are 
slowly convincing them of the beauty, yes, the prac- 
ticality of unselfishness. Society's very conflicts 
tend to develop altruism, a slow but hope-inspiring 
process in the development of the race. Much re- 
mains to be done. Man's tiger passions are to be sub- 
dued and harnessed into useful forces. His horizons 
are to be widened till he can see another's needs and 
rights. His selfishness must be pruned till there re- 
mains only a sufficient spur to provide his own neces- 
sities. His powers mental and physical are to be 
harnessed into obedient servants of a conscience-guided 
will. 

In many ways the Church may retain and widen 
its influence. Its problems, like those of the individ- 
ual, may be solved by patience and sympathetic in- 
sight. The soul will always want to be fed. It will 
always need consolation and guidance. It refuses to 
regard the daily routine of life as the most important 
thing in the universe. It will always respond to song, 
to emotion, to aspiration. In its deepest hours of 
need it will seek for some invisible companionship 
that may satisfy its longings and quench its thirst. 
Man is incurably religious and the Church should 
accept as a perennial source of encouragement this 
fundamental concept of human nature. 

The Church is deeply concerned over the religious 
indifference of our youth. They are not affirmatively 
irreligious, but fail to react strongly to the rehgious 
impulse. Men speak of this as a recent thing, as if 



90 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

we had fallen on evil days. They fear that religion 
will die out in another generation since the youth of 
this do not openly proclaim themselves rehgious. 
But the truth is this is not a new or strange thing. 
Youth does not wear its heart on its sleeve. It shrinks 
from revealing its inmost feehngs and emotions. 
And since religion is theory ''touched with emotion'' 
young men especially can be persuaded with difficulty 
to profess it openly. 

More important still is the fact that youth lives 
in life's dawn. Life to it is so real, so full of feeling, 
so full of joy and ambition. Material things seem 
of supreme importance and value. Sorrow has not 
yet cast its shadow. Defeat has not tempered, nor 
toil quenched, the enthusiasm with which it starts the 
. race of life. 

When age has fought its battles, and care has 
written wrinkles on cheek and brow, the real values of 
life gradually emerge into more and more prominence 
in human consciousness. The petty concerns that 
looked so large in the morning of life drop away and 
one by one the soul learns the deepest lessons of life. 
Men return to religion as one returns from a long 
journey, there to find rest and refreshment as the 
evening days draw on. Youth may seem care free 
and indifferent, but the battles of life draw men surely 
back to their primeval need which is also their crown- 
ing glory. 

The Church need never despair of its mission. 
Its only problem is to find the right method. Let 



PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS 91 

religious teachers study the psychology of religion as 
teachers study child psychology. Let them become 
expert potters in this most plastic as it is the most 
precious of materials. This is the eternal problem 
— to teach the profoundest truths in such fashion as 
to attract and convince the hungry multitudes. The 
practise of religion should be made a fine art, not only 
in the daily life of its devotees, but in the manner in 
which it is presented to others. We shall first appraise 
our problems and then learn how to solve them by the 
successive approximations of experience, as the 
mathematician approaches nearer and nearer the root 
of a number it is forever impossible exactly to extract. 



r 



IS CHRISTIANITY PRACTICABLE? 

SOME one has said that human life on this earth is 
a great adventure. Standing on the deck of 
the Lusitania as the swirling waters were about 
to engulf her, Charles Frohman said with serene faith 
that death was for him the greatest adventure of life. 
In different phrase the noted English preacher Stop- 
ford Brooke expressed the same thought to an Ameri- 
can friend — '1 expect the day of my death to be the 
most romantic day of my life/' 

In a strange world man is a wonder and a mystery 
to himself. He is in existence without his own con- 
sent, in an age, a country and a social setting which he 
has not chosen, with his political, social and religious 
opinions already predestined for him. The world he 
enters is a field for the play of mighty forces, and the 
operation of unchangeable laws. Amid such diversity 
of conditions most men disappear like snowflakes in 
the river, and after living uneventful lives *'rest in 
unvisited tombs." It is not strange that man has 
not mastered the science of living. Much less can he 
be expected to regard living as a fine art, worthy of 
his profoundest study, skill and effort. 

Whether life can be lived as a science or a fine 
art is an all important question, depending on whether 
reUgion can offer a safe and practicable guide. It is 
true that man may sometimes live a respectable life 



94 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

^thout consciously being religious. But consciously 
or unconsciously he is obeying the rules and pursuing 
the ideals offered by religion. In his daily rounds he 
is performing acts which have a religious sanction or 
condemnation. And his success depends on whether 
he may win the one and escape the other. 

I know there are those who claim there is a moral 
law independent of religious truths or beliefs; that in 
the order and constitution of nature there are certain 
great immutable rules inherent in the very nature of 
things which are applicable to human conduct. I am 
willing to admit the truth of the statement but not 
the conclusion drawn. In my judgment these moral 
laws are the very foundation stones of true religion. 
The value of a religion depends on how perfectly it 
embodies these fundamental moral truths and how it 
adapts them to human needs. Buddhism, Mohamme- 
danism, Christianity, all must be judged by this test. 

By Christianity we mean the religious ideas and 
precepts taught by Jesus. It is not a theory or belief 
about the person of Jesus, it is not belonging to a 
church, believing in a book, or adhering to some par- 
ticular mode of worship. While on earth Jesus taught 
certain doctrines as to God, the Kingdom, love, good 
works, eternal life. These inaugurated a new religion 
among men. It is with these only we shall be con- 
cerned. 

By practicable we mean, is it feasible in a world 
like ours, among human beings with all their interests, 
Tiopes, ambitions and struggles? 



IS CHRISTIANITY PRACTICABLE? 95 

The first question we ask of a new machine or a 
rule of conduct is, will it work? That is the acid test 
by which it succeeds or fails. However beautiful a 
religion may be in theory, it is not practicable unless 
it meets the needs of human souls, weak, sinful, beset 
by temptation, seeking the light, needing consolation 
in hours of agony and doubt. If these souls are shown 
the right path in life, are uplifted and strengthened to 
meet life's trials and cheered to perform manfully its 
duties, to that extent religion meets our definition 
and stands the test to which every system of religion 
must submit. If the Christian religion be true we 
need have no fear for the result of any test or any 
criticism. 

Let us use the yardstick of reason. For weak and 
fallible as reason sometimes is it is of great value in the 
practical affairs of life. In the physical universe what 
splendid results has reason given us. It can compute 
the distances of the stars, tell us the component 
elements of Aldebaran, and weigh the Pleiades in its 
balance. It has read the geologic records of the 
earth and described the various stages of its life history 
through countless eons past. It observes in gravita- 
tion and chemical affinity, in electron and radio- 
activity, the forces and forms of matter which make 
up the physical universe around us. Within the realm 
of the visible and the practical we may rely upon the 
processes and results of reason with tolerable certainty. 

Jesus did not use the plain language of science. 
He was not describing facts, but stating spiritual 



96 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

truths. He did not come as a historian but as a 
prophet. He used the pictures and symbols of the 
Orient to illustrate his truths. In picturesque parable 
and vivid Eastern phrase he set the jewels of his 
thought. It is difficult at best for one race or one 
age to understand another race and age. Especially 
is it difficult for the practical Western mind to put 
itself into the mental attitudes of Hebrew peasants 
in the days of Tiberius. We must translate their 
thoughts and feelings into ours or the Bible is either 
a sealed or a misleading book. Jesus' ideals, his views 
of his own mission, the people to whom he addressed 
his message, all convince us that there was an artist, 
painting a great picture by symbol and parable, with 
a wide vision of the future and in colors of eternal truth. 
There has been endless debate over the literal 
interpretation of Christ's sayings. Many still ad- 
vocate taking the picture from its frame, removing the 
"atmosphere," destroying the perfume, and using 
the dry husks that are left to feed hungry souls. 
Literal interpretation is the shibboleth of small minds. 
It is the surest way actually to distort and pervert 
Christ's teaching. Emerson once said of Jesus: 
"The idioms of his language and the figures of his 
rhetoric have usurped the place of his truth; and 
churches are built not on his principles but on his 
tropes." FooHsh sophists are those who look only at 
the literal phrase, thereby missing the deep meaning 
hidden under Eastern parable and Hebrew simile. 
By their seeming paradox Jesus' words claim atten- 



IS CHRISTIANITY PRACTICABLE? 97 

tion, as less vivid phrase could not do. Taken liter- 
ally many of these phrases may not compel acceptance. 
Taken as Jesus intended, to bring out as by a lightning 
flash the clear outlines of his doctrine of brotherly 
love, this stumbling block of the centuries becomes a 
stepping stone to the loftiest truths. 

The ideals preached by Jesus, when rightly inter- 
preted, are practicable if we admit there is a spiritual 
realm which is superior to matter. What a wondrous 
clarifying of our vision and strengthening of our faith 
if we look through the visible forms of matter to 
the soul behind it. What infinite vistas appear and 
what courage comes to our souls as we ''think God's 
thoughts after Him," in the boundless spaces that 
loom up before us. What an alluring vision to see 
God in the petals of the beautiful flower, in the crys- 
tals of the rock, in mountain pine and desert palm, in 
the grandeur of the sea, in all the life-thrilled processes 
of nature. Science teaches us there is a movement 
and an activity In the atom that known forces do not 
account for, as if it were itself an animate, living thing. 
It requires but little imagination and little faith to 
see in these minute universes the living spirit of God 
back of and permeating all material substances with 
His infinite life, as the human soul permeates the body 
it inhabits. 

Jesus announced to an expectant world the re- 
ligion of the spirit. Gk)d's covenant was transferred 
from tables of stone to the human heart. From law 
to love, from the letter to the spirit, from dead for- 



98 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

malism to life — this was the gift of the prophet of 
Nazareth. The old dispensation had been a glorious 
one in the darkness of ancient night. Despite their 
numerous backslidings the Jews were far in advance 
of their contemporaries in religious insight and spiritual 
fervor. On his noblest page Jeremiah had written: 
''Behold the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will 
make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and 
with the house of Judah. This is the covenant I 
will make with them: I will put my law in their inward 
parts and in their heart will I write it; and I will be 
their God and they shall be my people.'' The first 
Isaiah and the stern Micah voiced in the night of the 
eighth century before Christ sentiments so noble that 
they have lost none of their impressiveness through 
the lapse of time. But these produced but little effect 
in the lives of the people. They were the poetry and 
prophecy of their day, beautiful and lofty phrases, 
enough to prove their authors inspired. It remained 
for Jesus to transform these lofty sentiments into a 
living creed. Whsi had been religion with a poetic 
dress became religion pulsing with life, burning itself 
into the souls of men. Was it only the chance psy- 
chological moment when Jesus made his undramatic 
entrance upon the world's stage that gave his teach- 
ings their power? Was it his martyrdom, sealing his 
beliefs with his blood and converting his followers into 
pious fanatics? Both of these it was and something 
more. It was the undying truth of God's fatherhood 
and man's brotherhood set in the silver music of his 



IS CHRISTIANITY PRACTICABLE? 99 

matchless phrase, and consecrated by an unselfishness 
and love unmatched in history. The hour had struck 
in human history for the lofty altruism that could 
say — ''Man does not live to himself alone, he must put 
aside selfishness, live for others, transform hate into 
love, do good to all men/' Henceforth there is a new 
song in the heart, a new picture in the brain, a new 
consecration to the highest and noblest in life. Jesus 
brought these down out of the clouds of philosophic 
speculation and made them current in human life. 
He became the fountainhead of a new era, and never 
again will humanity be satisfied with a religion less 
noble than that preached on the hills of Galilee. 

If selfishness be admitted as a correct rule of 
human conduct then all the world is a field of struggle 
where cunning and strength win the high prizes of life. 
Altruism must be frowned upon for it would interfere 
with success. Men become legitimate subjects of 
shrewd bargaining, heartless competition and down- 
right cruelty. In every event the end justifies the 
means. We see this doctrine elevated into a fetich by 
Nietzsche and made the cornerstone of a perverted 
German theory of the State. It is a doctrine that 
dethrones love and fills the world with blood and 
hate. 

If the sun of unselfishness shines on the fields of 
human effort there is hope for the humblest and the 
weakest soul. Out of his very weakness man may look 
up into the eyes of pity and see there a fellow human 
sympathy. Religion may come and pour over human 



100 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

struggles its healing balm and all our strife disappears 
beneath a wondrous calni. We may justify the ways of 
Providence if we know there is a principle at work 
which, like the phagocytes in the human body, 
attacks the opposing enemy and restores health to 
the wounded universe. 

In the light of these reflections do we not realize 
that Christ's religion is practicable — is indeed the 
only safe and rational guide for human conduct? 
This ideal of unselfishness is the key to Christ's mes- 
sage. To enforce it he used the picturesque and 
effective language of the East: ''But I say unto you, 
resist not him that is evil; but whoever smiteth thee 
on thy right cheek turn to him the other also. And 
if any man would go to law with thee and take away 
thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. Give to him 
that asketh, and from him that would borrow of thee 
turn not away.'' For nineteen centuries these words 
have provoked the smile of shallow thinkers and the 
scorn of those versed only in the practical wisdom of 
this world. ''I say unto you. Love your enemies, and 
pray for them that persecute you; that ye may be the 
sons of your Father who isin Heaven." Foolish words 
of an idle dreamer on the Mount that looks down on 
the Sea of Galilee. Impractical visionary, carried away 
by a lofty but unreahzable idealism. A ' Gott-trunkener 
manUj' as the German Novalis said of Spinoza. These 
are the phrases of worldly wisdom, of thoughtless 
pragmatism. 

It was Life that Jesus sought to emphasize, and 



IS CHRISTIANITY PRACTICABLE? 101 

is the question really debatable? Is it not eternally 
true that the life of the soul infinitely transcends the 
needs of the body? In all ages it has been necessary 
to startle men sunk in sensuality and selfishness out 
of the ''bonds of the flesh'' as Paul phrased it, by some 
vivid word or deed. Jesus' statement is the ever- 
lasting truth put in vi^ords of matchless beauty. "Lay 
not up for yourselves treasures on earth — lay up for 
yourselves treasures in heaven." In a world wedded 
to wealth, steeped in sensual pleasures, seeing with 
the eyes of the flesh only, these were startling words of 
heresy. For amid Roman luxury or even Jewish 
wealth what could transcend in importance gilded 
houses, rich clothes, sumptuous feasts, retinues of 
servants, the homage of the people? 

What is of most value in life has engrossed the 
thought of serious men in every age of the world's 
history. Is it food, raiment, lands, sumptuous palaces, 
lordly revenues? Or is it peace, virtue, unselfish joy, 
spiritual happiness? Jesus' answer was good not 
only for Jew but for Gentile, for Roman Empire and 
American Commonwealth. 

''What does it profit a man to gain the whole world 
and lose his own soul?" Here is the eternal conflict 
between two opposing systems of thought — the 
philosophy of this world and the religion of two worlds. 
Jesus had the larger vision, the deeper perspective. 
Above and beyond the literal in his speech we are to 
see the spiritual import, what he intended to convey 
to his few ignorant Jewish hearers, to the multitudes 



102 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

through countless generations. His was the religion 
of two worlds, the religion of the spirit. 

To Jesus raan was an individual soul. He did not 
think of men in ternis of social groups. He was not 
interested in kingdoms or rulers or systems of thought. 
If you could set the individual in the way of truth all 
things else would follow. It would then matter but 
little what science he possessed, or what mode of 
government he adopted, or whether he were ever 
charmed by philosophy or ravished with beauty in 
any of its protean forms. There was but one im- 
portant thing in the universe, the human soul. There 
was but one important question, to get man to love 
God and his fellow man. His was a spiritual democ- 
racy. These ideals were the chart and foundation 
stones of the kingdom he came to set up. Like the 
constitution which a nation adopts Jesus stated only 
fundamental concepts. How these were to be worked 
out and applied m the complex relations of human 
society he did not prescribe or determine. But the 
truth is there, unquestioned, immutable, eternal. 
Like the star that shone at his nativity, it gleams and 
glows above the hills of Judea, a light that shall 
forever guide man toward the heavenly city. 

It remains for men to translate the gold of East- 
ern phrase into the language of every day life. How 
to relate Christian truths to individual conduct and 
social relations is the human part of the problem. It 
would not have been feasible for Jesus to lay down 
minute prescriptions for all the possible affairs of life. 



IS CHRISTIANITY PRACTICABLE? 103 

His religion is practicable as the constitution of the 
United States is in its field practicable, a great chart, 
above the passions and selfishness of the hour, good 
for all time, capable of interpretation to meet all 
conditions that may occur. It is the pole-star — to 
guide the mariner across the trackless seas of life ta 
a sure and immortal destiny. 



DEATH 

IT is related of Baron Rudiger, one of those Knights 
of the Middle Ages whose name a fickle record 

has preserved for us, that, upon feeling the 
approach of death, he summoned all his retainers to a 
feast in the great banqueting hall of his castle. In 
full armor, with his sword at his side, he sat at the 
head of the groaning table, and with true knightly- 
courage challenged Death to mortal combat. The 
world still remembers the beautiful simile of Homer, 
"generations dropping from the tree of time like 
leaves from the trees of autumn." The dying Hebrew 
King David gave to Solomon the solemn injunction, 
'1 go the way of all the earth. Be thou strong there- 
fore and show thyself a man." And one who was even 
more inspired than Grecian poet or Jewish seer de- 
clared that 'Ve are such stuff as dreams are made of 
and our little life is rounded with a sleep." Dickens 
speaks of death as an ''unknown sea that rolls round 
all the world." 

There is nothing so common as birth and death. 
Birth ushers us into the world with all of life's duties, 
privileges and responsibilities. What change does 
Death bring to the human soul? Does it cease to 
exist? Or does it pass into an existence either of 
happiness or misery as determined by its acts in this 
world? Do we live and grow after death, and is 



106 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

existence then nierely a continuation of the earthly 
Hfe? 

It has already been made evident in these pages 
that we believe in the soul's immortality and that it 
enters a future life exactly as it leaves this. Life is 
not a probation that ends with death. Life is a school 
and we shall continue to grow and learn in all future 
worlds we shall inhabit. It is not my purpose, how- 
ever, to enter into any argument over the solemn 
question that has puzzled every generation of men. 
I am calling attention to Death only to suggest a few 
thoughts as to how it should affect our lives in a very 
present practical way. All our acts are conditioned 
on the certainty of Death. 

The wise and the ignorant, philosophers and 
babes, the artist in his studio, the laborer at his toil, 
are all confronted by the inevitable end of life and the 
practical question is how shall this onmipresent fact 
affect our conduct during the brief years of our earthly 
existence. 

Death, then, raises first of all the supreme ques- 
tion of life. Bring to bear upon its solution all of 
history, all of science, all of experience, all of imagina- 
tion. In the tents of Arab nomads on the rim of a 
boundless desert; in the shadow of grim pagodas, 
eloquent witness to the aspiring reverence of the 
stolid Chinese; in the jungles of Africa under an 
equatorial sun; in libraries and factories and palaces of 
the more highly civilized races — we find the same great 
problem of the meaning of life. 



I 



DEATH 107 

First of all of course there is the Christian hope. 
For Christianity is a religion of two worlds — the 
present and all the future. What is imperfect here 
reaches fruition yonder. What is unjust here yonder 
is rounded into justice. The evils and wrongs of time^ 
the sorrows of individual lives, have in that future 
realm the opportunity of redress and consolation. 
No other philosophy can console or satisfy the reason- 
ing mind. And this is the dist^'nct promise of the 
Christian religion. We are citizens of two worlds 
and in the life beyond there will be a completion of 
the schooling process which is attended with so much 
pain and rebellion here. 

Perhaps the Great War has taught us that life 
is not an individual thing and that it can not be lived 
in selfish and splendid isolation. The echoes of that 
struggle resounded on every continent and in all the 
islands of the seven seas. We are all bound together. 
We are all on the same great ship, saihng over the 
same great ocean and destined to reach port or suffer 
shipwreck together. 

Another lesson, perhaps as impressive, is that 
life is not the pursuit of pleasure, a mad striving for 
wealth in order to gratify the desires of sense. In the 
Great War, the individual sank into a mere piece of 
intelligent mechanism. The war also elevated the 
individual into a new and glorious personality. If 
we were asked to declare who had performed the 
greatest service to his country and to mankind we 
might have difficulty in deciding whether it was the 



108 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

soldier In the trenches, the angels of mercy who minis- 
tered to the wounded and dying, or the brave true- 
hearted women who gave up ease and health in 
munition factories. The army of martyrs, too, were a 
glorious company. 

And this brings another great conviction that 
death may be of greater value to the world than life. 
The supreme sacrifice often kindles a flame of divine 
enthusiasm and sublime devotion that lifts a whole 
nation to unimaginable heights of consecration to a 
noble cause. Life was dear to Edith Cavell and to 
Captain Fryatt, though they met death like the true 
soldiers they were. But their deaths were worth far 
more to their country than their lives. The sudden 
arrest, the narrow prison cell, the unjust trial, the 
shots n a prison yard which snuffed out the life of 
Edith Cavell, what did they matter in a conflict that 
was shaking the world? Germany counted but one 
more enemy silenced, one heart less to beat for those 
in need. Little did she think that the rattle of the 
musketry in the early light of that memorable day in 
Brussels and the pitiful appeal of a life surrendered for 
a holy cause would summon legions of armed men to 
battle for the cause for which she died. Around the 
earth went a shudder of horror which awoke into 
existence invisible and mighty forces of which the 
Germans never dreamed. 

Death may be worth more to the world than life. 
No one can estimate rightly the social value of his 
own life. It may seem a cruel loss to the world when 



DEATH 10^ 

the Christian statesman or the profound scholar is 
suddenly struck down in the very height of influence 
and usefulness. But it by no means follows that it is 
a loss without recompense. No one, however great, 
is indispensable. His place is soon filled and the world 
rolls on. Sorrowing relatives and friends may mourn 
for a day, the cup of personal grief is for a time filled 
to overflowing. But somehow the world's duties are 
still fulfilled and time heals the scars which fate has 
made. A successful business man or a faithful mother 
dies and leaves the threads of business life or family 
cares rudely broken. What a cruel loss, you say. Yet 
the lesson must be learned that, since life is fleeting 
and death certain, in some inscrutable way the pur- 
poses of the universe are being fulfilled. 

Life may be long or short, full of useful activities 
or apparently aimless, but the supreme lesson is to 
accept the call of death without fear and with perfect 
equanimity. If it seems to come to me too soon, 
perhaps my usefulness is really ended. And how can 
death injure the soul that has lived a useful life? 

Hamlet's soliloquy is immortally true. "I do 
not set my life at a pin's fee. And for my soul what can 
it do to that, being a thing immortal as itself?" Life 
is a journey and death only a passing incident in the 
great adventure. We cling to life as if it were a rare 
and valuable treasure for which everything else must 
be sacrificed. Is it not a truer vision to accept with 
philosophic calmness whatever life may bring and to 
regard death as part of the order of things which it is 



110 A LAYMAN'S RELIGION 

neither wise nor desirable to escape? Therefore the 
true philosopher says: ''Do not weep for me, my friends, 
when I shall die. If I have fought life's battles to 
their end and achieved something, is it not that 
something which was my share of the world's life, 
whether it be great or small? And when that work 
is accomplished it is the part of wisdom to lay down 
the burdens and cool the heat of a dusty day, allow- 
ing others a chance to toil and accomplish and suffer. 
For no one can perform all the tasks or endure all the 
trials. Each in his narrow way furnishes a plank, 
or drives a rivet, or hoists a sail for the great ship 
humanity is building, and if he does that well his life 
has become a beneficent part of the great world voyage 
of humanity. Whenever the tasks of life end with 
death, then let us lie down without a fear or regret, 
but rather with philosophic serenity approach the 
end of life's little day." 

It was not only Christ that was crucified. It is the 
fate of all mankind. Sooner or later to all men come 
the sad hours of Gethsemane, the cruel pangs of Cal- 
vary. And may it not be truthfully said that every 
one in his daily life dies for others, so that his life 
become a vicarious atonement for the common good? 
In strange ways sometimes, in ways we do not recog- 
nize at the time, we pay this debt and perform this 
human service to our fellow men. Sometimes we 
stand in the trenches when the bullets rain death and 
destruction around us. Sometimes it is the quiet 
tragedies that are unrecorded in the pages known and 



DEATH 111 

read of men that sear and bruise the soul. Whether 
our lot be in palace or cottage, in college halls or rural 
fields, the sharp arrows pierce us as they did St. 
Sebastian, though winged by no visible enemies. You 
do not need to be a soldier to tread the thorny way. 
Your victories may never be crowned with laurel or 
blazoned forth before the multitudes. And yet your 
battles may be as brave as any recorded in the history 
of war. Your sacrifices may be as real and necessary 
in their humble way as those made in his great way 
by the lowly Nazarene. 

The Christian teaching thus becomes the pro- 
foundest lesson of philosophy. We strive in daily 
prosaic fashion to perform the duty that seems nearest 
and most important. But in supreme crises life 
takes on a new radiance. It is more than meat and 
raiment, more than work and pleasure, greater even 
then duty and responsibility. It is sacrifice, perfume, 
a spiritual atmosphere. The child dying in infancy 
sets in motion a train of influences that reach the 
shores of the remotest continents and the latest genera- 
tions. A good deed or a kindly word awakens echoes 
that resound on the heavenly shores. 

Life is no more a journey, a battle, a tragedy. 
It is a sacrament. 

Death is not the dark, the pitiless, the avenger. 
It is an incident in the cosmic plan, the opening of a 
door from one phase of an endless existence into 
another. 



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